Tools for Problem Definition

User personas help you really get who your audience is. Here’s how to weave them into your design thinking:

• Research and group: Do some user research to spot different groups. Make personas for groups with similar traits.
• Detail the personas: Flesh out these personas with details like age, habits, what they want, and what bothers them. Take "Busy Professional Sarah, 30, looking for quick wellness options," for example.
• Step into their shoes: Try to see things from the persona's point of view to grasp their needs and drives.
• Spot patterns: Look for what's common or different among the personas to spot key themes.
• Define the problem: Use what you've learned about the personas to state the problem as they see it. For Sarah, it might be "Needs a wellness app that fits her tight schedule."

An empathy map is a visual tool that helps you deeply understand user needs by organizing insights about their thoughts, feelings, actions, and challenges.

Here’s how to create one:

• Gather user data: Use methods like interviews, observations, or your existing knowledge to collect information. Organize this data by user types.
• Set up the map: Divide the canvas into four sections: "Thinks" "Says," "Feels," and "Does." Fill each section based on your findings. For a fitness app, users might "think about fitness goals," "see motivational images," and say they "share their progress online."
• Identify patterns: Examine the map to find common emotions and behaviors. For a wellness app, the map might highlight a need for motivational features and visual tracking, leading to a more user-centered problem definition.

A good problem statement is user-centric, derived from real user research insights, and specifically focuses on user needs rather than business outcomes.

The 4Ws technique is one of the best ways to define the problem statement. It involves asking “Who,” “What,” “Where,” and “Why” to define a problem comprehensively:

• Who: Identify target users or audience experiencing the problem.
• What: Analyze the observed problems and pain points during the empathize phase, understanding the tasks users aim to accomplish.
• Where: Determine the context or situation where the problem manifests, whether in a physical or digital realm.
• Why: Uncover the significance of solving the problem, examining the value a solution brings to both the user and the business.

A customer journey map visually illustrates how customers engage with a product or service. It highlights the problem areas, opportunities, and emotions users encounter throughout their journey.

To address issues using a customer journey map:

• Spot key moments: Identify the main actions users perform with your product or service. In e-commerce, this might involve steps like searching for a product, making a purchase, and receiving post-purchase support.
• Chart user feelings and needs: Document the users' emotions, challenges, and requirements at each stage. This provides a clear depiction of their overall experience.
• Look for important patterns: Examine the map to pinpoint where users are most dissatisfied or pleased. This helps you determine where to concentrate your efforts. For example, if users consistently face difficulties during checkout, that's an area to focus on and improve, aiming to enhance the user experience.

Sakichi Toyoda's 5 whys technique is a way to solve problems by drilling down to their core cause:

• Spot the issue: Pick out a clear problem, like "Users are leaving the app."
• Ask "why": Start with the first "why" to get the immediate reason. "Why are users leaving the app?" The answer might be "the checkout process is too complicated."
• Keep asking "why": Keep questioning, digging deeper each time. This peels back layers, revealing more about the problem.
• Find the core problem: By repeatedly asking "why," you eventually hit the core reason. You might discover "Users leave the app because the checkout doesn't have clear, user-friendly steps."

This technique helps you discover the real issues and create a focused problem statement, setting the stage for effective design solutions.

A SWOT analysis is a structured way to assess your team's internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. Here’s a simple guide to doing a SWOT analysis:

• Strengths (internal): Consider your team's special skills, resources, and what you've done well before. Get feedback from your team and other stakeholders.
• Weaknesses (internal): Pinpoint where your team might be lacking in skills or resources. Look at past difficulties and areas you can improve. Ask for honest opinions about your team's weak spots.
• Opportunities (external): Look at trends in the market and new tech. Find out what customers want through surveys or feedback. Think about possible partnerships or new ways your industry is growing.
• Threats (external): Keep an eye on your competition and any big changes that could shake things up. Look at economic, legal, or environmental factors that could be risks. Stay up to date on what's happening in your industry and what your customers are starting to expect.

Affinity diagrams help you sort through information, pinpoint problems, and come up with clear action plans. Let's say your website visits have dropped, and you've collected user feedback to figure out why. Here's how to use affinity diagrams to organize this feedback and spot the main design issues:

• Gather feedback: Collect varied comments about what's good and bad on your website, using methods like interviews, tests, surveys, or just watching how people use your site.
• Find common points: Look through the feedback for repeated points, like "Easy to Navigate" or "Looks Great."
• Group and label: Put similar feedback together and give each group a label that sums up the main idea.
• Make the diagram: Place your labeled groups on a board, either physically or digitally. This gives you a clear picture of what users are saying. Then, you can talk about each point and decide which issues are the most urgent to tackle.

Another way to spot problems in the design thinking process is to really get who your stakeholders are and what they need. Imagine you're launching a product where different people like customers and investors have key roles.

Here's a simple approach to stakeholder mapping to find potential issues:

• List your stakeholders: Write down everyone involved or affected by your project, like customers and investors.
• Arrange them in a matrix: Place stakeholders in a chart based on their influence and interest. Those with high influence and interest need a lot of your focus. Those with low influence but high interest should be kept informed. Stakeholders with high influence but low interest need a check-in now and then. Those with low influence and interest require the least attention.
• Note their main concerns: Write down what each stakeholder cares about or expects. Using the matrix, you can figure out which issues and concerns you need to address first.^[1]

The assumption mapping method is about carefully checking and understanding the team's beliefs about a product. It helps define problems clearly and sets a strong base for good design solutions.

Here's a straightforward way to do assumption mapping:

• Spot your team's assumptions: Identify what your team believes about the problem you're tackling. This might be about what users need, their main issues, or the core reasons behind these issues.
• Involve everyone: Get input from your team and other stakeholders to cover a wide range of beliefs.
• Make a visual map: Draw a map that organizes these assumptions by topic, showing different areas you might need to focus on.
• Assess the assumptions: Decide which assumptions are most important based on how much they affect your understanding of the problem. Question these assumptions by looking for evidence or doing specific research.
• Keep updating the map: Change your beliefs on the map as you find out more, making sure your understanding of the problem stays sharp and accurate.

For instance, if you think users are less engaged because they don't like the interface, you'd check this assumption by getting feedback from users to see if it's really true.

Storyboarding is a valuable tool to visually articulate user experiences and identify potential problems. Here are the steps for conducting storyboarding:

• Define the scenario: Clearly outline the user scenario you want to explore, such as a customer interacting with a website.
• Create frames: Divide the scenario into key frames, each representing a significant step in the user journey.
• Sketch visuals: Illustrate each frame with simple sketches, focusing on key interactions, emotions, and touchpoints.
• Narrate the story: Provide a narrative that explains the user's actions, thoughts, and emotions at each frame.
• Identify issues: Review the storyboard to identify potential problems or areas for improvement in the user experience.

For example, in a mobile app design, storyboarding can reveal navigation challenges or unclear user prompts, allowing for targeted problem-solving.