Framing.
WHAT PEOPLE USUALLY START WITH
A solution. "We need a dashboard."
WHAT TO ESTABLISH INSTEAD
What decision or task the dashboard would serve.
WHY
Frequently the stated solution does not address the actual problem.
HOW TO REFRAME
Ask what the person is trying to achieve, and why.
Repeat until you reach something that is genuinely the goal.
WHAT A GOOD PROBLEM STATEMENT CONTAINS
Who has the problem What they are trying to do What prevents it What success would look like
WHAT THAT ENABLES
Judging whether any proposed solution addresses it.
WHAT TO AVOID
Statements that contain the solution Statements so broad they cannot be evaluated
WHAT TO AGREE BEFORE DESIGNING
The problem, in writing, with whoever commissioned the work.
WHY IN WRITING
It prevents the project quietly becoming something else.
WHAT TO RETURN TO
That statement, whenever a decision is contested.
WHAT TO DO IF IT NO LONGER FITS
Change it deliberately, with agreement.
