How to solve design problems like a pro? Know before you go

PART 1/6 — The 6 Piece Puzzle

Design is in essence a problem-solving practice. You have a problem (or an opportunity), you try to understand it, and then you brainstorm to find ways to solve it (or take advantage of the opportunity).

It doesn’t matter if you are working on physical products, digital platforms, services, or a combination thereof; it should be a pretty straightforward process.

Yet many times designers and other stakeholders, being super eager to get creative, end up jumping the gun and going into “solution-finding” mode way too quickly, without fully understanding the problem first. This of course can lead to unfit solutions, and an unnecessary waste of time, money, and other resources that went into it.

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So what can we do to be better problem-solvers instead of gun-jumping designers? Simple…

Know before you go. Make it a point to always properly understand the problem before doing any ideation

And you might think to yourself “But I know my problem! I need to make an X that does Y”. Well… do you really? do you know what causes the problem? who else is affected by it? how might the problem change with time? what do you have at your disposal to solve it? and a long list of etceteras…?

A design problem is always a mix of different aspects and how they relate to each other. This means that solving the problem will be a game of compromise between these aspects, and as such, our very first step should always be to properly identify them, and understand them.

To help you with this here’s a really easy way to break down the process of understanding your design problem:

The 5 “Problem” puzzle pieces

Solving a design problem is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle that is missing a piece: You start by taking a good look at the pieces you have; you analyze their characteristics, how they relate to each other, and understand how they fit together. Lastly, you assemble them to see the full picture, which will give you a better idea of what the missing piece must look like.

These puzzle pieces are the different aspects that define your problem space, and the missing piece is the solution you are aiming to find.

Let’s take a quick look at the 5 “Problem” puzzle pieces we need to understand when we face a design problem:

1. ENVIRONMENT & CONTEXT

A design problem doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it always belongs within a particular environment and context. The environment can be defined as the set of characteristics that define our field of work: Where will the product be used? How can we describe the industry? How does the market look like? Who are the competitors? etc. The context, on the other hand, is the set of circumstances that can influence our environment and product in one way or another: relevant trends and principles (eg. mobile technology adoption, social trends, the rise of 5G...), laws and policies, a particular time frame, etc.

2. GOAL

Our solution will help someone in our problem space achieve something in particular, so our goal should clearly describe what it is that we want to achieve. The scope and aim of our challenge should be specific and clear to anyone involved in the project so that we can avoid misinterpretations and team members pulling in different directions as a result.

3. SUCCESS METRICS

So how will we know that we’ve reached our goal? We need to define some metrics that will allow us to gauge how successful we are at achieving our target. These need to be defined in a concise manner (for example “if X amount of people are able to successfully do Y task within a Z timeframe, we will have achieved our goal”).

4. USERS & INSIGHTS

People are diverse, and different groups have different needs and behaviors. We need to clearly define who is the target audience in our problem space and understand what are their characteristics, needs, and motivations that drive their behavior.

5. TOOLS & MATERIALS

We need to know what do we have at our disposal in order to solve the problem, as this will act as opportunities and constraints for our possible solutions. What kind of expertise and knowledge do we have within our team? Do we have access to particular technologies or intellectual property that will give us an edge? Is there a fixed budget of time or resources that we need to keep in mind?

Only once we have studied, analysed, understood, and assembled our 5 problem puzzle pieces, can we look into the missing piece of our puzzle… 💡

THE SOLUTION

At last, the moment we were waiting for. 😁 Based on all we have learned from the problem puzzle pieces so far, we can finally start running wild with our ideation, trying to find that elusive solution that fits well with each of our separate pieces but, more importantly, that can harmoniously fit with all of them at the same time.

What can you do to better define your 5 puzzle pieces?

At Artefact One this is how we start all of our projects: with a thorough process of understanding and problem definition. What activities we include and how long the ‘Problem definition’ phase takes, will vary per project.

In upcoming articles, we’ll dive deeper into each of the 5 problem puzzle pieces in order to explain them better and see how they play a role in the final outcome of our design process.

And of course, since we rarely work on our own, a key to being good problem-solving designers is to help our whole team of stakeholders to align on the problem space, so we will also share some methodologies you can use to define, analyze and map out the problem puzzle pieces together with your team.🚀 Stay tuned!