Week 3: How Might We
Turning Problems Into Opportunities for Design
Last week you identified the problem that you wanted to work on and defined your aspiration or moral vision. This week you are going to refine that vision into a design challenge by developing a ¨How Might We¨ statement. In addition, you will have the chance to talk with myself and your mentor to help you in defining your How Might We.
I. Framing Your Design Challenge
Framing your problem will help you start to think about a solution and help you to clarify the impact that you want to have. This is not an easy process, but take your time because this statement will help determine what you do for the rest of the class.
The ¨How Might We¨ method is common in design thinking because it guides people to thinking that there might be an answer (how), while recognizing that your solution may or may not work (might), and that it is a collective effort (we) to create the solution [1] [2].
Now you are going to take the topic you chose from last week and turn it into a How Might We.
First you want to look at the topic you chose and notice the problem. You may think of the problem as a wish, as in ¨I really wish my city had…,¨ or a gripe, as in ¨It annoys me that my city does not…¨. After you make a list of your wishes or gripes related to your topic you are going to turn your wishes and gripes into opportunity with a How Might We statement. See the example below from the Ideo Design Thinking Toolkit.
Or look at this example from The Field Guide to Human Centered Design.
Assignment:
For this weeks assignment you are going to use that format above to define your How Might We.
By Sunday, October 1 write a response* which answers the 5 questions below:
- What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
- What is your problem framed as a How Might We?
- What is the impact you want to have?
- What are some possible solutions to the problem?
- What are some of the constraints that you think you might face?
*To respond to the post, click the speech bubble below (to the left of the Twitter symbol) and leave a response.
