Set the table
Approximately 10 minutes
You have your creative team assembled. Let them know the goal of the meeting, which is to define the problem within the design thinking framework. Emphasize that the goal is improvement to product and service and the problems should be defined in these terms. This is not about finding fault with individuals.
The goal
A good problem definition is focused on the customer. It is sufficiently open-ended that it can be answered in many ways in the idea generation step, but focused enough to be a useful guide.
Begin with the customer in mind
The first step is to empathize with the customer. The customer can be a user, a client, a constituent – anyone who will use your product or service. How does the customer interact with you and what struggles does he or she face? Begin with the assumption that any difficulty or desire the customer has is valid and can be addressed by an improvement to the product or service you provide.
Activity 1: Customer needs
approximately 20 minutes
Have your creative team produce as many Post It notes as possible that describe a customer need, like “I can’t open the packaging without cutting myself,” or “I can’t tell if the people in front of me in line are about to buy or waiting for their food”.
The aim here is quantity and variety. One way to produce a broad variety is to consider multiple different customer profiles, e.g. people with different demographics, different occasions and situations, or different locations.
Activity 2: Group
Approximately 20 minutes
Have your team group similar customer needs. Are there a bunch that all relate to difficulty with packaging? Do some relate to delays, or errors?
Activity 3: How might we…
Approximately 20 minutes
Select the theme that garnered the most attention. If your goal is a single problem definition, see if consensus can be reached around a single problem definition. If this fails then some form of tally mark voting can be held, but give time to allow for consensus – it may settle on a superior or more comprehensive problem definition.
Ask the group to distill the problem definition into a “how might we” frame, for example, “How might we make our lineups less confusing and slow?”
This step sets up the next step, idea generation well, as the problem definition is posed as a question, inviting response.
