7 Mental Models for Clear Problem Framing

What happened this week?

This week, we had a crucial annual customer webinar to showcase our accomplishments (ie why it’s worth paying us) and upcoming releases (ie still keep paying us 😁). It's a tricky task but great job on great features from the team!

To deliver great features, our team focused on getting closer to our users, understanding their needs (the 'Job to be Done'), and especially framing problems clearly. It's been challenging, but we got better. Many product managers tend to jump too quickly on the solution space.

That’s the focus of this article, I'll share seven key mental models that have helped me and other PMs bring clarity to the problem space. These models will boost your problem-framing skills, whether you're a pro or just starting out.

What’s in there?

1. Why should you care about a clear problem statement?

2. 7 mental models to think SLOW first

3. 4 main blockers

4. Powerful 5 WHYS for Problem Framing

5. Your Tactical Summary to keep (As always)

Why should you care about a clear problem statement?

This is something I often ask my team when they come up with ideas. The coaching around this is simple, yet powerful. Many PMs miss the mark on this, costing them time, product waste and career momentum.

A well-crafted problem statement is a North Star for a product manager. By succinctly articulating the challenges at hand, a problem statement enables product managers to rally their teams, make informed decisions, and steer their efforts with precision. It's the linchpin that links the existing problems with the desired solutions, ensuring that the product aligns with market needs and user expectations. In short, the importance of a problem statement for a product manager cannot be overstated, as it is the cornerstone of successful product execution.

Qualities of an Effective Problem Statement

An effective problem statement should have the following:

1. Provides Focus and Frames the Problem: It narrows down the issue, preventing it from being too broad.

2. Inspires Your Team: It should be motivating, encouraging team members to tackle the problem enthusiastically.

3. Informs Criteria for Evaluating Competing Ideas: It sets the standards against which potential solutions can be measured.

4. Empowers Your Team to Make Independent Decisions: Team members should be able to make decisions autonomously based on the problem statement.

5. Captures the Hearts and Minds of People You Meet: It should resonate with stakeholders and engage them.

6. Prevents You from Creating Concepts that are All Things to All People: By keeping it focused, it prevents solutions from becoming overly complex or diluted.

Crafting a problem statement - FEESS design

When it comes to creating a powerful problem statement, adhere to these essential guidelines below:

1. Frame the Issue: Begin by providing comprehensive background information, and dive into the who, what, where, when, and why of the problem.
   

2. Emphasize the Problem's Significance: Elaborate on why solving the problem is crucial, shedding light on its implications, financial ramifications, and dependencies to other areas.

3. Evidence-driven: Use concrete data and evidence to confirm the scale and extent of the problem, reinforcing its validity.

4. Suggested approach: Drawing from your research, suggest practical solutions or approaches that can effectively address the problem.

5. Solution Benefits: Clearly illustrate how your proposed solution(s) will lead to the problem's resolution, highlighting the financial gains and enhanced user satisfaction they will bring about. We love running solution design sessions using the Opportunity Solution Tree, here’s a simple template below.

7 mental models for Problem Clarity

In my time working with products, I've noticed that a lot of product-related waste come from not getting the problem statement right. Often, these fixes only tackle about half of what's bothering the users. This isn't great because when users come back with additional feedback, they might say something like, "Well, it's not completely fixed; we still have this XYZ issue."

4 main blockers:

Put simply, a lot of product managers have good intentions, yet they often fall short of achieving their desired outcomes. Ultimately, we are human beings who tend to revert to our habitual behaviors. The main culprits usually revolve around the following four behaviors:

• Afraid of asking

• My boss told me so I just do

• Short-term thinking

• Do not ask 5 Whys
  

  I've been guilty of all these behaviors, so instead, the solution lies in resetting our defaults, elevating our baseline behaviors, and adopting a growth-oriented mindset. Now, let's challenge the issue at hand by reframing it using two to three of these strategies.

1. Rephrase the Problem: Altering the wording can significantly impact how a problem is perceived. By rephrasing, product managers can uncover new dimensions of the issue and approach it from a fresh perspective. For example, changing "Declining User Engagement" to "Unlocking User Engagement Potential" can shift the focus from negativity to target opportunity.

2. Expose and Challenge Assumptions: Identify and scrutinize assumptions attached to the problem. By questioning these assumptions, product managers can reveal hidden biases and discover novel solutions. For instance, questioning the assumption that "users prefer the current layout" may lead to user-centric design improvements.

3. Chunk Up (Goal setting): Look at the problem from a broader perspective to gain clarity. Viewing the problem from a higher level allows product managers to understand how it fits into the larger context of the product and its goals. This is important when the issue is not clear, the other question I use is “what does Good look like for our users?”

4. Chunk Down (First Principle): Break down the problem into smaller, more specific issues to ease comprehension. This approach simplifies the problem and facilitates more focused problem-solving. For instance, breaking "Low Conversion Rates" down into specific stages of the conversion funnel can pinpoint problem areas.

5. Find Multiple Perspectives: View the problem from various angles to uncover new insights. Encourage team members to share their unique perspectives to gain a holistic understanding of the problem and potential solutions.

6. Make It Engaging (Big vision focus): Create a problem statement that excites and motivates you to approach it creatively. A statement like "Revolutionizing User Experience" can instill enthusiasm and passion for the problem-solving process.

7. Reverse the Problem: Consider solutions by reversing the problem's perspective. If the issue is "How to Increase Sales," reversing it becomes "How to Decrease Sales." This can trigger creative thinking and help uncover unconventional solutions.

5 WHYs, simply powerful

By now we know that a well-crafted problem statement provides valuable insights to the management, empowering them to make informed decisions that can profoundly impact the direction of the project. Now to finish this off by going 5 level deep

Example: "Customer complaints about a software application stability." (Real example 🫢 )

• Why? - Customers report frequent crashes and freezes. (First why)

• Why? - The software lacks proper error handling. (Second why)

• Why? - The development team focused on delivering features, neglecting error handling and technical debt. (Third why)

• Why? - The product owner prioritized feature development over stability. (Fourth why)

• Why? - The company's performance evaluations reward feature delivery, not software stability. (Fifth why, the root cause)

In essence, a clearly articulated problem statement not only defines the problem at hand but also uncovers the underlying causes, leading to a more profound understanding of the situation. This understanding is the first step towards effective problem-solving and successful product management skills.

Tactical Summary Card

More value read here:

• How To Manage Up and accelerate your PM promotion

• Learn how to say NO as a product manager

• Get in the head of a Hiring Manager

Best time to apply this…Yesterday. Execution Matters Most!