Framework to guide your creative problem solving process

In entrepreneurship, sometimes, it all comes down to creative problems solving. But one may ask HOW does it get from the issue to the solution if there are possible the unlimited options available? Good question. Those who had the problem before have developed the so-called CPS framework you might see below.

CPS framework diagram.

The framework consists of 3 major stages: 1) Understanding the Challenge; 2) Generating ideas; 3) Preparing for Action. It might remind you about the Design Thinking framework, about it spoke in my previous article.

Talking about the first step in the framework, we cannot underestimate its importance, as it includes such processes as information exploration and problem framing. We would not have an understanding of what we are doing if we proceeded further without examining all the needed information, not framing a problem, and choosing the particular opportunities to pursue.

Each component of the framework consist from two small stages, has two phases — generating phase and focusing phase.

Understanding the Challenge

While on “Understanding the Challenge” phase of CPS framework your process could be structured like that:

Stage 1: Constructing Opportunities

• Generating phase: generate possible opportunities and challenges to consider (i.e., creating broad, brief, and beneficial opportunity statements that help set the principal direction for problem-solving).
• Focusing phase: identifying the most promising opportunities to pursue (selecting a few opportunity statements).

Stage 2: Exploring Data

• Generating phase: generating and gathering data that help to develop an understanding of the current situation.
• Focusing phase: screening, sorting, and organizing data to identify the key or most important data.

Stage 3: Framing Problems

• Generating phase: generating many, varied, and unusual ways to state a problem (i.e., creating specific and targeted problem statements).
• Focusing phase: select or form a specific problem statement.

After we have understood the challenge, asked the right questions, explored all available data, and finally have framed problems — we could proceed to the “Generating Ideas” phase.

Generating Ideas

“Generating Ideas” phase, from its name, is about coming up with the different ideas — ideas, either more developmental or exploratory.

Developmental ideas are:

• Ideas for incremental improvements;
• Improvements of existing structures and systems;
• Ideas fitting within the existing system ;
• Ideas are quick to implement.

Improvement ideas are:

• Ideas for more radical changes;
• Creating new structures and systems;
• Ideas for solutions disrupting the existing system;
• Ideas that take longer to implement.

After we are tired of generating new and new ideas, we have to proceed to a focusing stage of idea generation phase, which is there to prioritize and identify ideas (one or several) that are promising, intriguing, inviting. Do not judge just yet whether the solution is workable. You will do that in ‘Planning for Action’ after you properly explore whether it is viable or not.

Some tools could be used as focusing tools:

• Selecting Hits (variation of the tool) — use one symbol to mark very unusual ideas and another to mark exciting but not highly original ideas. This is so that you don’t overlook the unique ideas.
• Clustering — a typical bottom-up clustering of emerging themes or top-down categorizing of ideas according to pre-selected categories e.g., long term and short term ideas, ideas demanding a new organizational system and ideas fitting in the existing organizational system.

Preparing for Action

This phase is all about solutions. After we had understood the problem and have spent time generating and classifying possible ideas on how to solve the problem — we are free to start trying to solve the problem and build acceptance.

• Generating phase: generate many, varied, unusual criteria that you will use in the focusing stage to examine the ideas, identifying critical sources of assistance and resistance — answer to such questions as Who? What? Where? When? Why?
• Focusing phase: organizing, evaluating, analyzing, prioritizing, and strengthening promising ideas; Formulate a specific plan for action — try to answer to the question — Who will do what by when?

What does this framework could bring in your everyday life? In my case, such frameworks, could help to structure the process of ideation and problem-solving. Usually, in everyday life we might face some problems and this frameworks once more emphasizes how the Preparation phase is important. Before jumping straight to the generation of possible solutions , it is quite important to spend time to gather more information and to be sure that the problem is real, it is defined and it is worth solving.