We're all supposed to be problem solvers. Yet, most of us would struggle to define a problem solving framework that applies to different contexts. It seems we want to specialize by “industry”. A quick glance at some “Head of Product” job posts reveals requirements like “10 years in fintech” - The message is clear - We don’t want just problem solvers, we want problem solvers in a narrowly defined vertical.

I've been fortunate enough to have been exposed to several excellent problem solvers in different settings - from manufacturing & logistics, to hospitality, to technology. Over the years I've found one key to good problem solving - Problem definition. Here I will attempt what I believe to be principles that work in any context with high complexity.

Note: I use the word problem in a very specific way - its the thing you're trying to solve - it doesn't talk about whether its a customer behavior change you seek, or business outcome or a product outcome or whatever else. Regardless of what your super-ordinate goal is, at the end of the day it needs to be expressed as a problem to solve.

A problem well defined is a problem half solved is an adage that you've probably heard before. But what exactly does a "well defined" problem even mean? There are tons of templates and methodologies out there. I have nothing against them, I continue to use different methods based on the context. However, there's an underlying meta pattern behind all these methods, which in my opinion is more important than any template out there.

A well defined problem is a problem defined as a GAP

• GAP between what is and what should be

• GAP between what is and what we want to be

• GAP between what is and what needs to be.

The process of defining a problem as a gap will:

1. Help you understand the current situation well

2. Measure and monitor metrics that accurately represent the current situation

3. Observe patterns in the current situation

4. Define a future (target) state in terms of the same metrics you use to define the current situation

Let’s unpack that!

Let’s say you have a live product - it works - people use it. However, your UX person thinks the user experience can be improved, your CRO thinks our pricing is too low, you think adding a feature will make you better than your competitors, Engineering wants to move to a new tech stack and the operations team is bribing you to get a backend tool built. How do you decide which problem(s) you should be solving? How do you define the problem(s) to solve?

(Imagine this as an inner monologue)

What is the current situation?

Well the app is live, some people are using it. I think its going well, we recently hit a major milestone of 50k users downloading the app. So things are good.

How long did it take to get to 50k?

About 6 months

Was that the goal? (50k in 6 months)

I don’t think we had a defined goal, we just wanted to make sure the app is successful

What does success mean to the company? What is the most important high level goal you are pursuing as a company?

We need to show our investors that we have real traction in the market.

Ok, so the problem you’re trying to solve is showing traction to investors. What does traction mean? What metrics do you look at?

Easy - conversion and retention.

And what is the current conversion and retention?

(After some data exploration) - Conversion is 1% and 6 Month Retention is 15%

Are conversion and retention increasing? Stable?

Conversion has been increasing, but retention is declining.

If you were to pick one metric that shows traction, which one would you pick?

Conversion! - we are an infrequent-use product so conversion is most important at least in the short term. It will be interesting to see how retention curves look about a year out.

Are there any interesting trends in the daily, weekly and monthly conversion numbers?

We see spikes every Friday and Monday. But when averaged over a week, its pretty stable.

What does “real traction” look like? What sort of numbers would you like to see at the end of the year?

(After some conversations with the C-Suite / Board) We’d have to show conversion numbers in the 6% range to be considered successful.

Let’s put it together, how would you define your problem now?
We need to “Increase weekly conversions from 1% to 6% by the end of the year, to show traction to our investors”

Once you’ve defined your problem as a gap, you can translate this into an OKR, SMART goal or whatever works for you and your team. You have they key ingredient required to start hypothesizing solutions, testing them and monitoring progress.

Why go through this process?

There are some salient aspects to the example here, in hindsight, the answer was very simple, but it belies some complexity.

• This definition forced us to understand our current reality in a way that may have not been clear to everyone

• It helped focus us on one metric that matters at this time

• It allowed us to set the "size of the bet" any ideas that we think will have a modest impact can be discarded.

• Knowing we have 6 months sets the tone - we cannot just make 10% improvements every month - we have to take a "big bet"- rapid experimentation is going to be key, which in turn sets the tone for collaboration, experimentation and iteration

• Now instead of open ended ideas like "we should increase the price" you can get hypotheses like "I think we're perceived as too cheap to be good, increasing the price could make us look more legit and therefore increase conversion"
  

So next time you're faced with a nebulous problem or competing problems, have an inner monologue - ask what gap you're trying to fill. Then go fill it!