How to find a problem
The way we frame a problem can make or break the entire project. It’s the blueprint for everything that comes after. The question to ask ourselves is simple but crucial: What’s the best problem we can solve?
Too often, design teams jump straight into the weeds of discovery without truly understanding the problem at hand. We assume we know what the customer needs, and in doing so, risk solving the wrong problem. The key to success is taking the time to diagnose the problem upfront, which ensures we’re not chasing symptoms but addressing the root cause.
Take this example: “I need a new car, but I can’t afford it.”
At first glance, the problem seems obvious, the customer needs a car, but money is a barrier. This framing makes it feel easy to jump to familiar solutions. Find lower-cost vehicles, explore financing options or savings plans. But this kind of immediate solutioning assumes the problem has already been correctly defined.
A more careful approach is to resist that first framing and expand the inquiry before narrowing it again. This means stepping back into lived experience and understanding the context that produced the statement in the first place.
To do this, we must move beyond surface-level questions and dig into the bigger picture. Consider these two probing questions:
“Tell me about a time you didn’t use your car to meet your needs." By asking about lived experiences, we can uncover deeper insights. Maybe the customer takes public transport when the weather is good, or walks if they have the time. We understand how people navigate constraints and hint at broader system failures.
“Why do you need a car?” This question is deceptively simple, but it begins to surface intent rather than solution. A response like “I need to get to work and drop my kids off” reframes the issue entirely. The problem is no longer about vehicle ownership; it becomes about reliable access to employment, education and caregiving responsibilities within time and geographic constraints.
From these conversations, we might reframe the problem entirely. What seemed like a straightforward case of “I need a car” becomes a more complex but accurate statement. Perhaps something like “I need a safe, reliable and affordable way to take my kids to school and get to work.”
This new problem statement opens the door to a wider array of solutions and encourages creative thinking. Perhaps alternatives to car ownership, or novel ways to maximise time and resources we may not have considered otherwise.
For designers and researchers working in complex systems, the discipline is not simply to “find the right problem,” but to stay with ambiguity long enough to understand how that problem has been constructed in the first place, and whether it is the right one to solve at all.
The most important work often happens before the problem feels clear.
For more on this, check out the HBR article Are You Solving the Right Problems by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg
