what does it mean for a problem to be in thousands
Reprint: R1209F The rigor with which a trouble is defined is the most of import factor in finding a practiced solution. Many organizations, nevertheless, are non proficient at articulating their problems and identifying which ones are crucial to their strategies. They may even be trying to solve the wrong problems—missing opportunities and wasting resource in the process. The key is to ask the right questions. The writer describes a procedure that his firm, InnoCentive, has used to help clients define and articulate business, technical, social, and policy challenges then present them to an online community of more 250,000 solvers. The 4-pace process consists of asking a series of questions and using the answers to create a trouble statement that will elicit novel ideas from an array of experts. EnterpriseWorks/VITA, a nonprofit organisation, used this process to find a low-price, lightweight, and convenient production that expands access to make clean drinking water in the developing world.
"If I were given one hr to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the trouble and one minute resolving it," Albert Einstein said.
Those were wise words, but from what I have observed, near organizations don't listen them when tackling innovation projects. Indeed, when developing new products, processes, or even businesses, most companies aren't sufficiently rigorous in defining the issues they're attempting to solve and articulating why those bug are important. Without that rigor, organizations miss opportunities, waste matter resources, and end up pursuing innovation initiatives that aren't aligned with their strategies. How many times have you seen a projection get down i path simply to realize in hindsight that it should have gone downwardly some other? How many times have y'all seen an innovation plan deliver a seemingly breakthrough issue only to find that it tin't exist implemented or it addresses the wrong problem? Many organizations need to become improve at asking the right questions so that they tackle the right problems.
I offer here a process for defining problems that any arrangement can employ on its ain. My firm, InnoCentive, has used it to assist more than 100 corporations, government agencies, and foundations meliorate the quality and efficiency of their innovation efforts and, every bit a result, their overall functioning. Through this process, which nosotros telephone call claiming-driven innovation, clients define and articulate their business concern, technical, social, and policy issues and present them every bit challenges to a community of more than than 250,000 solvers—scientists, engineers, and other experts who hail from 200 countries—on InnoCentive.com, our innovation marketplace. Successful solvers have earned awards of $5,000 to $ane million.
Since our launch, more than ten years ago, nosotros have managed more than 2,000 issues and solved more than half of them—a much higher proportion than most organizations achieve on their own. Indeed, our success rates have improved dramatically over the years (34% in 2006, 39% in 2009, and 57% in 2011), which is a function of the increasing quality of the questions we pose and of our solver community. Interestingly, even unsolved problems have been tremendously valuable to many clients, allowing them to abolish sick-blighted programs much earlier than they otherwise would have so redeploy their resources.
In our early years, we focused on highly specific technical problems, but we take since expanded, taking on everything from basic R&D and product development to the health and safety of astronauts to banking services in developing countries. We now know that the rigor with which a trouble is defined is the near important factor in finding a suitable solution. Simply we've seen that most organizations are not proficient at articulating their bug clearly and concisely. Many have considerable difficulty even identifying which problems are crucial to their missions and strategies.
In fact, many clients have realized while working with us that they may not be tackling the right issues. Consider a company that engages InnoCentive to find a lubricant for its manufacturing machinery. This exchange ensues:
InnoCentive staffer: "Why exercise you lot need the lubricant?"
Client'due south engineer: "Because nosotros're now expecting our mechanism to do things information technology was not designed to do, and it needs a particular lubricant to operate."
InnoCentive staffer: "Why don't you lot replace the machinery?"
Client's engineer: "Because no ane makes equipment that exactly fits our needs."
This raises a deeper question: Does the company need the lubricant, or does it demand a new fashion to make its production? It could be that rethinking the manufacturing process would requite the firm a new basis for competitive reward. (Asking questions until you become to the root cause of a problem draws from the famous Five Whys problem-solving technique developed at Toyota and employed in Six Sigma.)
The case is like many we've seen: Someone in the bowels of the organisation is assigned to fix a very specific, near-term problem. But because the firm doesn't utilize a rigorous procedure for understanding the dimensions of the trouble, leaders miss an opportunity to address underlying strategic issues. The state of affairs is exacerbated past what Stefan Thomke and Donald Reinertsen have identified every bit the fallacy of "The sooner the project is started, the sooner it will be finished." (See "Six Myths of Product Development," HBR May 2012.) Organizational teams speed toward a solution, fearing that if they spend too much time defining the problem, their superiors will punish them for taking so long to go to the starting line.
Ironically, that approach is more probable to waste time and money and reduce the odds of success than 1 that strives at the outset to achieve an in-depth agreement of the problem and its importance to the house. With this in heed, we developed a 4-footstep process for defining and articulating problems, which nosotros have honed with our clients. It consists of asking a serial of questions and using the answers to create a thorough problem statement. This process is important for two reasons. Offset, information technology rallies the arrangement around a shared agreement of the problem, why the firm should tackle information technology, and the level of resources it should receive. Firms that don't engage in this process often classify too few resource to solving major problems or too many to solving low-priority or wrongly defined ones. It'south useful to assign a value to the solution: An organization will exist more willing to devote considerable time and resources to an effort that is shown to represent a $100 million marketplace opportunity than to an initiative whose value is much less or is unclear. Second, the process helps an arrangement bandage the widest possible internet for potential solutions, giving internal and external experts in disparate fields the information they need to crack the problem.
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To illustrate how the process works, we'll describe an initiative to expand access to clean drinking h2o undertaken by the nonprofit EnterpriseWorks/VITA, a division of Relief International. EWV's mission is to foster economic growth and enhance the standard of living in developing countries past expanding access to technologies and helping entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses.
The organization chose Jon Naugle, its technical manager, as the initiative's "problem champion." Individuals in this role should have a deep understanding of the field or domain and exist capable plan administrators. Considering trouble champions may also exist charged with implementing solutions, a proven leader with the authority, responsibility, and resources to run across the project through can be invaluable in this part, particularly for a larger and more strategic undertaking. Naugle, an engineer with more 25 years of agricultural and rural-development experience in East and West Africa and the Caribbean, fit the beak. He was supported by specialists who understood local market conditions, available materials, and other critical bug related to the delivery of drinking water.
Pace 1: Establish the Need for a Solution
The purpose of this step is to articulate the problem in the simplest terms possible: "We are looking for 10 in social club to accomplish Z as measured past W." Such a statement, akin to an lift pitch, is a telephone call to arms that clarifies the importance of the issue and helps secure resources to address it. This initial framing answers three questions:
What is the bones need?
This is the essential trouble, stated clearly and concisely. It is important at this phase to focus on the need that'south at the heart of the problem instead of jumping to a solution. Defining the scope is also important. Clearly, looking for lubricant for a piece of mechanism is different from seeking a radically new manufacturing process.
The basic need EWV identified was access to clean drinking water for the estimated i.one billion people in the world who lack it. This is a pressing upshot even in areas that have enough of rainfall, considering the water is not effectively captured, stored, and distributed.
What is the desired consequence?
Answering this question requires agreement the perspectives of customers and other beneficiaries. (The Five Whys approach can be very helpful.) Again, avoid the temptation to favor a item solution or arroyo. This question should be addressed qualitatively and quantitatively whenever possible. A loftier-level but specific goal, such as "improving fuel efficiency to 100 mpg by 2020," can be helpful at this stage.
In answering this question, Naugle and his team realized that the outcome had to be more than admission to water; the admission had to be convenient. Women and children in countries such every bit Uganda often must walk long distances to fetch water from valleys and and then carry it uphill to their villages. The desired outcome EWV defined was to provide h2o for daily family needs without requiring enormous expenditures of time and energy.
Who stands to benefit and why?
Answering this question compels an organization to place all potential customers and beneficiaries. Information technology is at this stage that you understand whether, say, yous are solving a lubricant problem for the engineer or for the head of manufacturing—whose definitions of success may vary considerably.
If the problem yous desire to solve is industrywide, it'due south crucial to sympathize why the market has failed to address it.
By pondering this question, EWV came to come across that the benefits would accumulate to individuals and families as well equally to regions and countries. Women would spend less time walking to retrieve water, giving them more fourth dimension for working in the field or in exterior employment that would bring their families needed income. Children would be able to attend schoolhouse. And over the longer term, regions and countries would benefit from the improved instruction and productivity of the population.
Step ii: Justify the Need
The purpose of answering the questions in this step is to explain why your organization should endeavor to solve the problem.
Is the effort aligned with our strategy?
In other words, will satisfying the demand serve the organization's strategic goals? It is not unusual for an system to be working on problems that are no longer in sync with its strategy or mission. In that case, the effort (and mayhap the whole initiative) should be reconsidered.
In the example of EWV, simply improving access to clean drinking h2o wouldn't be plenty; to fit the arrangement'southward mission, the solution should generate economic development and opportunities for local businesses. It needed to involve something that people would buy.
In addition, you should consider whether the trouble fits with your business firm's priorities. Since EWV's other projects included providing access to affordable products such as cookstoves and treadle pumps, the drinking water project was appropriate.
What are the desired benefits for the company, and how will we measure them?
In for-profit companies, the desired benefit could be to reach a acquirement target, attain a certain market share, or achieve specific bike-fourth dimension improvements. EWV hoped to further its goal of being a recognized leader in helping the globe'southward poor past transferring technology through the individual sector. That benefit would be measured by market impact: How many families are paying for the solution? How is it affecting their lives? Are sales and installation creating jobs? Given the potential benefits, EWV accounted the priority to be high.
How volition we ensure that a solution is implemented?
Assume that a solution is institute. Someone in the organization must be responsible for carrying it out—whether that means installing a new manufacturing applied science, launching a new concern, or commercializing a product innovation. That person could be the problem champion, only he or she could also be the director of an existing partition, a cantankerous-functional squad, or a new department.
At EWV, Jon Naugle was also put in accuse of carrying out the solution. In addition to his technical background, Naugle had a runway record of successfully implementing similar projects. For instance, he had served as EWV's country manager in Niger, where he oversaw a component of a Earth Bank pilot projection to promote small-calibration individual irrigation. His part of the project involved getting the private sector to manufacture treadle pumps and manually drill wells.
It is of import at this stage to initiate a high-level chat in the organization nearly the resources a solution might require. This can seem premature—after all, you're still defining the trouble, and the field of possible solutions could be very large—but it'southward actually non as well early to begin exploring what resource your organization is willing and able to devote to evaluating solutions so implementing the all-time one. Even at the outset, you may have an inkling that implementing a solution will exist much more expensive than others in the organization realize. In that case, it's important to communicate a rough estimate of the money and people that volition be required and to make sure that the organisation is willing to keep down this path. The upshot of such a discussion might exist that some constraints on resourcing must exist built into the problem statement. Early on in its drinking water project, EWV fix a cap on how much it would devote to initial research and the testing of possible solutions.
Now that you accept laid out the need for a solution and its importance to the organization, y'all must define the trouble in detail. This involves applying a rigorous method to ensure that you have captured all the data that someone—including people in fields far removed from your industry—might need to solve the problem.
Footstep 3: Contextualize the Trouble
Examining past efforts to find a solution tin salve time and resources and generate highly innovative thinking. If the problem is industrywide, it's crucial to understand why the market has failed to accost it.
What approaches have we tried?
The aim hither is to find solutions that might already exist in your organization and place those that it has disproved. By answering this question, you lot can avoid reinventing the bike or going down a expressionless finish.
In previous efforts to expand access to make clean water, EWV had offered products and services ranging from manually drilled wells for irrigation to filters for household water handling. As with all its projects, EWV identified products that depression-income consumers could afford and, if possible, that local entrepreneurs could manufacture or service. Equally Naugle and his team revisited those efforts, they realized that both solutions worked only if a h2o source, such every bit surface water or a shallow aquifer, was close to the household. Every bit a event, they decided to focus on rainwater—which falls everywhere in the world to a greater or lesser extent—as a source that could reach many more than people. More than specifically, the squad turned its attention to the concept of rainwater harvesting. "Rainwater is delivered directly to the end user," Naugle says. "It's as close equally you can become to a piped h2o system without having a piped water supply."
What take others tried?
EWV's investigation of previous attempts at rainwater harvesting involved reviewing inquiry on the topic, conducting five field studies, and surveying 20 countries to ask what technology was being used, what was and was not working, what prevented or encouraged the use of various solutions, how much the solutions cost, and what function government played.
"One of the key things we learned from the surveys," Naugle says, "was that once you accept a difficult roof—which many people do—to use equally a drove surface, the virtually expensive matter is storage."
Hither was the trouble that needed to exist solved. EWV found that existing solutions for storing rainwater, such as concrete tanks, were likewise expensive for depression-income families in developing countries, so households were sharing storage tanks. But because no 1 took buying of the communal facilities, they oft fell into disrepair. Consequently, Naugle and his squad homed in on the concept of a low-price household rainwater-storage device.
Their research into prior solutions surfaced what seemed initially like a promising arroyo: storing rainwater in a 525-gallon jar that was almost as tall every bit an adult and three times equally wide. In Thailand, they learned, 5 one thousand thousand of those jars had been deployed over v years. Later farther investigation, however, they found that the jars were fabricated of cement, which was available in Thailand at a low price. More of import, the state'due south practiced roads made it possible to manufacture the jars in one location and transport them in trucks around the country. That solution wouldn't work in areas that had neither cement nor high-quality roads. Indeed, through interviews with villagers in Republic of uganda, EWV found that even empty polyethylene barrels big enough to concur merely l gallons of water were difficult to behave along a path. It became clear that a viable storage solution had to be light enough to be carried some distance in areas without roads.
What are the internal and external constraints on implementing a solution?
At present that you lot have a better idea of what y'all desire to accomplish, it's time to revisit the issue of resources and organizational delivery: Do you accept the necessary support for soliciting and so evaluating possible solutions? Are you sure that you tin obtain the money and the people to implement the nigh promising one?
External constraints are merely equally of import to evaluate: Are at that place issues apropos patents or intellectual-holding rights? Are there laws and regulations to exist considered? Answering these questions may require consultation with various stakeholders and experts.
Do you have the necessary support for soliciting and evaluating possible solutions? Do you have the money and the people to implement the most promising one?
EWV's exploration of possible external constraints included examining government policies regarding rainwater storage. Naugle and his team constitute that the governments of Republic of kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam supported the idea, but the strongest proponent was Uganda's minister of water and the environment, Maria Mutagamba. Consequently, EWV decided to test the storage solution in Republic of uganda.
Step iv: Write the Trouble Statement
At present it's time to write a full clarification of the trouble you lot're seeking to solve and the requirements the solution must run into. The problem statement, which captures all that the organisation has learned through answering the questions in the previous steps, helps found a consensus on what a viable solution would exist and what resource would be required to achieve it.
A total, clear description also helps people both inside and outside the organization quickly grasp the issue. This is especially important because solutions to circuitous bug in an manufacture or subject field often come up from experts in other fields (encounter "Getting Unusual Suspects to Solve R&D Puzzles," HBR May 2007). For example, the method for moving viscous oil from spills in Arctic and subarctic waters from collection barges to disposal tanks came from a chemist in the cement industry, who responded to the Oil Spill Recovery Institute's clarification of the trouble in terms that were precise only not specific to the petroleum industry. Thus the institute was able to solve in a matter of months a claiming that had stumped petroleum engineers for years. (To read the constitute's full problem statement, visit hbr.org/problem-statement1.)
Here are some questions that can help you develop a thorough trouble statement:
Is the problem actually many problems?
The aim here is to drill down to root causes. Circuitous, seemingly insoluble bug are much more approachable when broken into detached elements.
For EWV, this meant making it articulate that the solution needed to be a storage product that private households could afford, that was lite enough to be easily transported on poor-quality roads or paths, and that could exist easily maintained.
What requirements must a solution run across?
EWV conducted extensive on-the-ground surveys with potential customers in Republic of uganda to identify the must-have versus the nice-to-accept elements of a solution. (Encounter the sidebar "Elements of a Successful Solution.") Information technology didn't affair to EWV whether the solution was a new device or an adaptation of an existing 1. Too, the solution didn't need to be one that could be mass-produced. That is, it could be something that local small-scale-scale entrepreneurs could manufacture.
Experts in rainwater harvesting told Naugle and his squad that their target price of $20 was unachievable, which meant that subsidies would be required. Just a subsidized product was confronting EWV'south strategy and philosophy.
Which problem solvers should we engage?
The dead end EWV striking in seeking a $20 solution from those experts led the organization to conclude that it needed to enlist equally many experts outside the field as possible. That is when EWV decided to engage InnoCentive and its network of 250,000 solvers.
What information and language should the problem statement include?
To engage the largest number of solvers from the widest multifariousness of fields, a problem argument must meet the twin goals of being extremely specific but not unnecessarily technical. It shouldn't contain industry or discipline jargon or presuppose cognition of a item field. Information technology may (and probably should) include a summary of previous solution attempts and detailed requirements.
With those criteria in mind, Naugle and his squad crafted a problem statement. (The following is the abstract; for the full problem statement, visit hbr.org/problem-statement2.) "EnterpriseWorks is seeking design ideas for a low-cost rainwater storage system that tin be installed in households in developing countries. The solution is expected to facilitate access to make clean water at a household level, addressing a problem that affects millions of people worldwide who are living in impoverished communities or rural areas where access to clean water is limited. Domestic rainwater harvesting is a proven technology that can be a valuable choice for accessing and storing water year round. Withal, the high price of bachelor rainwater storage systems makes them well beyond the achieve of low-income families to install in their homes. A solution to this problem would non only provide convenient and affordable access to scarce water resource but would besides permit families, peculiarly the women and children who are usually tasked with water collection, to spend less time walking distances to collect water and more time on activities that can bring in income and improve the quality of life."
To appoint the largest number of solvers from the widest multifariousness of fields, a problem statement must meet the twin goals of being extremely specific only not unnecessarily technical.
What practise solvers need to submit?
What information about the proposed solution does your organization need in order to invest in it? For example, would a well-founded hypothetical arroyo be sufficient, or is a total-blown prototype needed? EWV decided that a solver had to submit a written explanation of the solution and detailed drawings.
What incentives do solvers need?
The point of asking this question is to ensure that the right people are motivated to address the problem. For internal solvers, incentives tin be written into chore descriptions or offered as promotions and bonuses. For external solvers, the incentive might be a cash award. EWV offered to pay $15,000 to the solver who provided the best solution through the InnoCentive network.
How volition solutions be evaluated and success measured?
Addressing this question forces a visitor to be explicit about how information technology will evaluate the solutions it receives. Clarity and transparency are crucial to arriving at viable solutions and to ensuring that the evaluation procedure is fair and rigorous. In some cases a "nosotros'll know it when we see it" arroyo is reasonable—for example, when a company is looking for a new branding strategy. Most of the fourth dimension, all the same, information technology is a sign that before steps in the process have non been approached with sufficient rigor.
EWV stipulated that it would evaluate solutions on their ability to meet the criteria of low price, loftier storage capacity, low weight, and easy maintenance. Information technology added that information technology would prefer designs that were modular (so that the unit would be easier to send) and adaptable or salvageable or had multiple functions (so that owners could reuse the materials afterwards the product's lifetime or sell them to others for various applications). The overarching goal was to continue costs depression and to help poor families justify the buy.
The Winner
Ultimately, the solution to EWV'southward rainwater-storage trouble came from someone exterior the field: a German language inventor whose company specialized in the design of tourist submarines. The solution he proposed required no elaborate machinery; in fact, information technology had no pumps or moving parts. It was an established industrial applied science that had not been practical to h2o storage: a plastic pocketbook within a plastic handbag with a tube at the acme. The outer handbag (made of less-expensive, woven polypropylene) provided the structure's strength, while the inner bag (made of more-expensive, linear depression-density polyethylene) was impermeable and could hold 125 gallons of water. The two-handbag approach allowed the inner bag to be thinner, reducing the price of the product, while the outer bag was strong enough to contain a ton and a half of water.
The structure folded into a packet the size of a briefcase and weighed near viii pounds. In short, the solution was affordable, commercially viable, could be easily transported to remote areas, and could be sold and installed by local entrepreneurs. (Retailers make from $4 to $8 per unit of measurement, depending on the book they buy. Installers of the gutters, downspout, and base of operations earn about $six.)
EWV developed an initial version and tested information technology in Uganda, where the organization asked end users such questions as What do you think of its weight? Does it meet your needs? Even mundane issues like colour came into play: The woven outer numberless were white, which women pointed out would immediately look dirty. EWV modified the pattern on the basis of this input: For example, information technology changed the color of the device to chocolate-brown, expanded its size to 350 gallons (while keeping the target price of no more $twenty per 125 gallons of water storage), altered its shape to make it more stable, and replaced the original siphon with an outlet tap.
Afterwards 14 months of field testing, EWV rolled out the commercial product in Uganda in March 2011. By the cease of May 2012, 50 to 60 shops, hamlet sales agents, and cooperatives were selling the product; more than than 80 entrepreneurs had been trained to install it; and 1,418 units had been deployed in viii districts in southwestern Uganda.
EWV deems this a success at this stage in the rollout. It hopes to make the units available in ten countries—and accept tens or hundreds of thousands of units installed—within v years. Ultimately, it believes, millions of units volition exist in use for a variety of applications, including household drinking water, irrigation, and construction. Interestingly, the primary obstacle to getting people to buy the device has been skepticism that something that comes in such a minor packet (the size of a typical five-gallon jerrican) tin hold the equivalent of lxx jerricans. Believing that the remedy is to show villagers the installed product, EWV is currently testing various promotion and marketing programs.As the EWV story illustrates, critically analyzing and clearly articulating a trouble can yield highly innovative solutions. Organizations that use these simple concepts and develop the skills and bailiwick to inquire better questions and define their issues with more than rigor can create strategic advantage, unlock truly groundbreaking innovation, and drive meliorate business organisation operation. Asking better questions delivers ameliorate results.
A version of this article appeared in the September 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Source: https://hbr.org/2012/09/are-you-solving-the-right-problem
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