Wicked Problems Assignment => Design Thinking — Day 9
1.0 Recap
Yesterday, I wrote about how we can tackle wicked problems and solving it by breaking them down into nodes and using agile methodologies to improve each solution. Check it out here.
2.0 Assignment
Today, I’ll be writing about the answer I gave to one of the questions in the lesson about Wicked Problems.
2.1 Question
Please describe a wicked problem, which you’ve encountered in your own work-life — or describe an environmental, a nations’, or a company’s wicked problem which you’ve read or heard about in the media.
I’ll be describing this wicked problem based on the 10 characteristics listed below:
The 10 Characteristics of Wicked Problems are:
- There is no definitive formula for a wicked problem.
- Wicked problems have no stopping rule, as in there’s no way to know your solution is final.
- Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, they can only be good-or-bad.
- There is no immediate test of a solution to a wicked problem.
- Every solution to a wicked problem is a “one-shot operation”; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly.
- Wicked problems do not have a set number of potential solutions.
- Every wicked problem is essentially unique.
- Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.
- There is always more than one explanation for a wicked problem because the explanations vary greatly depending on the individual perspective.
- The planner/designer has no right to be wrong and must be fully responsible for his/her actions.
2.2 Answer
A wicked problem I would like to describe is the UTME(United Tertiary Matriculation Examination) which is an examination taken by high school or secondary school students in order to gain admission into a university of choice. When I first wrote this exam, about 10 years ago, it was mostly done on paper.
We had issues of missing exam scripts and inconsistencies with the scores. I remembered seeing my result twice with different scores.
But now, the one-shot operation[5] or solution the government came up with in solving this problem was moving from the paper-based test to a computer-based one.
One would think this solves the problem, but instead, it generated another wicked problem[8]. Most of the students have to train in order to use the computer. Students who stay in rural areas have to come to the city where they could have access to the computer centers where the UTME are being taken. Another problem it created was that there were limited centers handling this computer-based UTME examination. Therefore, there is no stopping rule[2] for this kind of wicked problem.
3.0 Conclusion
Do you have a wicked problem you might want to share? Let me know!
The best way to learn is by asking questions and letting people know how you understand the topic. Feel free to leave a comment, we will definitely learn from it
