what medicine using the solotion to address the probleam with factor
Reprint: R1209F The rigor with which a problem is defined is the most important factor in finding a good solution. Many organizations, nonetheless, 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 resources in the process. The central is to ask the right questions. The author describes a process that his business firm, InnoCentive, has used to help clients define and articulate business organization, technical, social, and policy challenges and then present them to an online community of more than 250,000 solvers. The four-step process consists of request a series of questions and using the answers to create a problem statement that volition arm-twist novel ideas from an array of experts. EnterpriseWorks/VITA, a nonprofit organization, used this procedure to find a low-price, lightweight, and convenient product that expands access to clean drinking water in the developing earth.
"If I were given one hour to relieve the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it," Albert Einstein said.
Those were wise words, just from what I have observed, nigh 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 problems 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 accept you seen a project go downward one path merely to realize in retrospect that it should have gone down another? How many times have you seen an innovation program deliver a seemingly quantum result merely to find that it can't be implemented or it addresses the wrong trouble? Many organizations need to go better at asking the right questions so that they tackle the right problems.
I offer here a process for defining issues that any organisation can employ on its own. My business firm, InnoCentive, has used information technology to assist more 100 corporations, government agencies, and foundations improve the quality and efficiency of their innovation efforts and, equally a result, their overall functioning. Through this process, which we telephone call claiming-driven innovation, clients ascertain and articulate their business organization, technical, social, and policy issues and present them as challenges to a customs of more 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 $five,000 to $1 million.
Since our launch, more than x years ago, we take managed more than than 2,000 bug and solved more than half of them—a much higher proportion than nigh organizations achieve on their own. Indeed, our success rates take 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 nosotros pose and of our solver community. Interestingly, fifty-fifty unsolved issues take been tremendously valuable to many clients, allowing them to abolish ill-fated programs much before than they otherwise would have and then redeploy their resources.
In our early on years, we focused on highly specific technical problems, but nosotros have since expanded, taking on everything from bones R&D and product evolution to the health and safety of astronauts to cyberbanking services in developing countries. Nosotros now know that the rigor with which a problem is defined is the near of import factor in finding a suitable solution. Merely nosotros've seen that most organizations are non proficient at articulating their issues clearly and concisely. Many accept 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 correct problems. Consider a visitor that engages InnoCentive to find a lubricant for its manufacturing machinery. This exchange ensues:
InnoCentive staffer: "Why do you need the lubricant?"
Client's engineer: "Because we're now expecting our machinery to practise things information technology was not designed to exercise, and it needs a particular lubricant to operate."
InnoCentive staffer: "Why don't you replace the machinery?"
Customer'due south engineer: "Because no one makes equipment that exactly fits our needs."
This raises a deeper question: Does the company demand the lubricant, or does it need a new way to brand its product? It could be that rethinking the manufacturing process would give the firm a new basis for competitive reward. (Asking questions until y'all get to the root cause of a problem draws from the famous Five Whys problem-solving technique adult at Toyota and employed in Six Sigma.)
The example is similar many nosotros've seen: Someone in the bowels of the organization is assigned to ready a very specific, near-term problem. Just because the business firm doesn't utilise a rigorous process for agreement the dimensions of the problem, leaders miss an opportunity to address underlying strategic problems. The situation is exacerbated by what Stefan Thomke and Donald Reinertsen take identified as 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 volition punish them for taking so long to get to the starting line.
Ironically, that arroyo is more likely to waste time and money and reduce the odds of success than ane that strives at the kickoff to achieve an in-depth agreement of the problem and its importance to the firm. With this in listen, we adult a four-step process for defining and articulating problems, which we have honed with our clients. It consists of asking a series of questions and using the answers to create a thorough problem argument. This process is important for two reasons. Outset, it rallies the organization around a shared agreement of the trouble, why the firm should tackle it, and the level of resources it should receive. Firms that don't engage in this process frequently allocate too few resources to solving major problems or likewise many to solving depression-priority or wrongly divers ones. It's useful to assign a value to the solution: An organisation volition be more willing to devote considerable time and resources to an endeavour that is shown to represent a $100 million market place opportunity than to an initiative whose value is much less or is unclear. Second, the process helps an organisation bandage the widest possible net for potential solutions, giving internal and external experts in disparate fields the information they need to crack the trouble.
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To illustrate how the procedure works, we'll describe an initiative to aggrandize access to clean drinking water undertaken by the nonprofit EnterpriseWorks/VITA, a division of Relief International. EWV's mission is to foster economical growth and raise the standard of living in developing countries by expanding access to technologies and helping entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses.
The organization chose Jon Naugle, its technical managing director, as the initiative's "problem champion." Individuals in this role should have a deep understanding of the field or domain and exist capable program administrators. Because problem champions may also be charged with implementing solutions, a proven leader with the authority, responsibility, and resources to see the project through tin be invaluable in this role, peculiarly for a larger and more strategic undertaking. Naugle, an engineer with more than than 25 years of agricultural and rural-evolution experience in Eastward and West Africa and the Caribbean, fit the bill. He was supported past specialists who understood local market place weather, available materials, and other critical issues related to the delivery of drinking water.
Pace 1: Establish the Need for a Solution
The purpose of this footstep is to clear the problem in the simplest terms possible: "We are looking for X in guild to achieve Z every bit measured by W." Such a statement, alike to an elevator pitch, is a call to arms that clarifies the importance of the issue and helps secure resources to address it. This initial framing answers 3 questions:
What is the basic need?
This is the essential problem, stated conspicuously and concisely. It is of import at this phase to focus on the demand that'due south at the heart of the problem instead of jumping to a solution. Defining the scope is besides important. Clearly, looking for lubricant for a piece of mechanism is different from seeking a radically new manufacturing procedure.
The basic demand EWV identified was access to make clean drinking h2o for the estimated one.one billion people in the world who lack information technology. This is a pressing issue even in areas that have plenty of rainfall, because the h2o is not finer captured, stored, and distributed.
What is the desired issue?
Answering this question requires understanding 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 approach. This question should be addressed qualitatively and quantitatively whenever possible. A high-level but specific goal, such equally "improving fuel efficiency to 100 mpg by 2020," can exist helpful at this stage.
In answering this question, Naugle and his team realized that the outcome had to exist more than access to water; the access had to be convenient. Women and children in countries such as Uganda often must walk long distances to fetch water from valleys and then comport it uphill to their villages. The desired outcome EWV defined was to provide water for daily family needs without requiring enormous expenditures of fourth dimension and energy.
Who stands to do good and why?
Answering this question compels an organization to place all potential customers and beneficiaries. It is at this stage that you understand whether, say, y'all are solving a lubricant problem for the engineer or for the head of manufacturing—whose definitions of success may vary considerably.
If the problem you want to solve is industrywide, information technology'southward crucial to empathise why the market has failed to address information technology.
By pondering this question, EWV came to meet that the benefits would accrue to individuals and families as well as to regions and countries. Women would spend less time walking to call back water, giving them more time for working in the field or in outside employment that would bring their families needed income. Children would be able to attend school. And over the longer term, regions and countries would do good from the improved teaching and productivity of the population.
Stride 2: Justify the Demand
The purpose of answering the questions in this pace is to explain why your organization should attempt to solve the trouble.
Is the effort aligned with our strategy?
In other words, will satisfying the need serve the organization'southward strategic goals? It is non unusual for an organization to be working on issues that are no longer in sync with its strategy or mission. In that case, the effort (and perhaps the whole initiative) should be reconsidered.
In the case of EWV, simply improving admission to clean drinking water wouldn't be enough; to fit the organization's mission, the solution should generate economic evolution and opportunities for local businesses. It needed to involve something that people would buy.
In addition, you should consider whether the problem fits with your firm'south 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 visitor, and how volition nosotros measure them?
In for-turn a profit companies, the desired benefit could exist to reach a revenue target, attain a certain market share, or achieve specific cycle-time improvements. EWV hoped to further its goal of existence a recognized leader in helping the world's poor by transferring applied science through the private sector. That benefit would exist measured by market touch on: 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 deemed the priority to be high.
How will we ensure that a solution is implemented?
Presume that a solution is found. Someone in the organization must be responsible for conveying it out—whether that means installing a new manufacturing technology, launching a new business, or commercializing a product innovation. That person could be the problem champion, but he or she could also exist the director of an existing division, a cross-functional team, or a new department.
At EWV, Jon Naugle was also put in accuse of carrying out the solution. In addition to his technical groundwork, Naugle had a track tape of successfully implementing like projects. For instance, he had served every bit EWV's country manager in Niger, where he oversaw a component of a Globe Bank pilot project to promote pocket-sized private irrigation. His part of the project involved getting the private sector to manufacture treadle pumps and manually drill wells.
It is important at this stage to initiate a high-level conversation in the arrangement about the resources a solution might require. This can seem premature—after all, you're nevertheless defining the trouble, and the field of possible solutions could exist very large—only it'southward really non too early to begin exploring what resources your organization is willing and able to devote to evaluating solutions and then implementing the best one. Even at the starting time, you may have an inkling that implementing a solution will be much more expensive than others in the system realize. In that case, it's of import to communicate a rough estimate of the money and people that will exist required and to brand sure that the organization is willing to keep down this path. The result of such a word might exist that some constraints on resourcing must be built into the problem statement. Early in its drinking water project, EWV set a cap on how much it would devote to initial enquiry and the testing of possible solutions.
Now that y'all have laid out the need for a solution and its importance to the arrangement, you must ascertain the trouble in item. This involves applying a rigorous method to ensure that you take captured all the information that someone—including people in fields far removed from your manufacture—might demand to solve the problem.
Stride three: Contextualize the Trouble
Examining by efforts to notice a solution can save time and resources and generate highly innovative thinking. If the problem is industrywide, it's crucial to understand why the market has failed to address it.
What approaches have nosotros tried?
The aim here is to find solutions that might already exist in your arrangement and identify those that information technology has disproved. By answering this question, y'all can avoid reinventing the wheel or going down a dead end.
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 treatment. Every bit with all its projects, EWV identified products that low-income consumers could beget and, if possible, that local entrepreneurs could industry or service. As Naugle and his team revisited those efforts, they realized that both solutions worked but if a h2o source, such equally surface water or a shallow aquifer, was shut to the household. Equally a outcome, they decided to focus on rainwater—which falls everywhere in the globe to a greater or lesser extent—as a source that could reach many more people. More specifically, the squad turned its attention to the concept of rainwater harvesting. "Rainwater is delivered straight to the end user," Naugle says. "It'southward equally shut as you tin can get 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 research on the topic, conducting v field studies, and surveying 20 countries to enquire what applied science 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 role government played.
"One of the key things nosotros learned from the surveys," Naugle says, "was that once yous have a hard roof—which many people do—to employ equally a collection surface, the most expensive thing is storage."
Here was the problem that needed to exist solved. EWV constitute that existing solutions for storing rainwater, such as concrete tanks, were too expensive for low-income families in developing countries, so households were sharing storage tanks. Merely because no ane took buying of the communal facilities, they frequently fell into busted. Consequently, Naugle and his team homed in on the concept of a depression-cost household rainwater-storage device.
Their research into prior solutions surfaced what seemed initially like a promising approach: storing rainwater in a 525-gallon jar that was well-nigh equally tall as an developed and three times as broad. In Thailand, they learned, v meg of those jars had been deployed over five years. Later further investigation, still, they found that the jars were made of cement, which was bachelor in Thailand at a depression price. More important, the country's practiced roads fabricated it possible to manufacture the jars in one location and transport them in trucks effectually the state. 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 establish that fifty-fifty empty polyethylene barrels large enough to hold but 50 gallons of h2o were difficult to conduct along a path. It became clear that a viable storage solution had to be lite plenty to be carried some altitude in areas without roads.
What are the internal and external constraints on implementing a solution?
Now that you have a meliorate thought of what you desire to accomplish, information technology'due south time to revisit the effect of resource and organizational delivery: Do y'all accept the necessary support for soliciting and so evaluating possible solutions? Are y'all sure that you can obtain the money and the people to implement the near promising i?
External constraints are but equally important to evaluate: Are in that location problems concerning patents or intellectual-property rights? Are there laws and regulations to be considered? Answering these questions may require consultation with various stakeholders and experts.
Practice you take the necessary support for soliciting and evaluating possible solutions? Do you accept the money and the people to implement the most promising one?
EWV's exploration of possible external constraints included examining authorities policies regarding rainwater storage. Naugle and his squad institute that the governments of Republic of kenya, Tanzania, Republic of uganda, and Vietnam supported the idea, only 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 four: Write the Problem Statement
At present it'southward time to write a full description of the trouble you're seeking to solve and the requirements the solution must run into. The trouble 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 be and what resources would be required to achieve information technology.
A full, clear clarification besides helps people both inside and outside the organisation quickly grasp the effect. This is especially important because solutions to complex bug in an industry or subject area oftentimes come from experts in other fields (see "Getting Unusual Suspects to Solve R&D Puzzles," HBR May 2007). For example, the method for moving glutinous oil from spills in Arctic and subarctic waters from drove barges to disposal tanks came from a chemist in the cement industry, who responded to the Oil Spill Recovery Institute'due south description of the problem in terms that were precise but not specific to the petroleum manufacture. Thus the institute was able to solve in a affair of months a claiming that had stumped petroleum engineers for years. (To read the constitute's total problem statement, visit hbr.org/problem-statement1.)
Here are some questions that tin can help you develop a thorough problem statement:
Is the problem actually many problems?
The aim here is to drill down to root causes. Complex, seemingly insoluble bug are much more approachable when cleaved into discrete elements.
For EWV, this meant making it articulate that the solution needed to exist a storage product that private households could afford, that was light enough to be easily transported on poor-quality roads or paths, and that could be easily maintained.
What requirements must a solution see?
EWV conducted extensive on-the-ground surveys with potential customers in Republic of uganda to identify the must-have versus the nice-to-take elements of a solution. (See the sidebar "Elements of a Successful Solution.") It didn't matter to EWV whether the solution was a new device or an adaptation of an existing i. As well, the solution didn't demand to be one that could be mass-produced. That is, it could be something that local minor-scale entrepreneurs could industry.
Experts in rainwater harvesting told Naugle and his team that their target price of $20 was unachievable, which meant that subsidies would exist required. Simply a subsidized product was against EWV'southward strategy and philosophy.
Which trouble solvers should we appoint?
The dead end EWV hit in seeking a $twenty solution from those experts led the organization to conclude that it needed to enlist as many experts outside the field as possible. That is when EWV decided to appoint InnoCentive and its network of 250,000 solvers.
What data and language should the problem argument include?
To engage the largest number of solvers from the widest variety of fields, a problem argument must meet the twin goals of being extremely specific but non unnecessarily technical. Information technology shouldn't contain manufacture or discipline jargon or presuppose knowledge of a particular 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 team crafted a problem argument. (The following is the abstract; for the full trouble statement, visit hbr.org/problem-statement2.) "EnterpriseWorks is seeking pattern ideas for a depression-cost rainwater storage system that tin be installed in households in developing countries. The solution is expected to facilitate access to 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 make clean water is limited. Domestic rainwater harvesting is a proven applied science that can be a valuable selection for accessing and storing h2o year circular. However, the high price of available rainwater storage systems makes them well beyond the accomplish of low-income families to install in their homes. A solution to this problem would not only provide convenient and affordable access to scarce h2o resources but would also let families, especially the women and children who are commonly tasked with water collection, to spend less fourth dimension walking distances to collect water and more fourth dimension on activities that tin bring in income and amend the quality of life."
To engage the largest number of solvers from the widest diverseness of fields, a problem statement must meet the twin goals of existence extremely specific but non unnecessarily technical.
What do solvers need to submit?
What information about the proposed solution does your organization need in order to invest in it? For case, would a well-founded hypothetical arroyo exist sufficient, or is a full-blown epitome 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 can be written into job descriptions or offered as promotions and bonuses. For external solvers, the incentive might be a greenbacks award. EWV offered to pay $15,000 to the solver who provided the all-time solution through the InnoCentive network.
How will solutions be evaluated and success measured?
Addressing this question forces a company to be explicit about how it will evaluate the solutions information technology receives. Clarity and transparency are crucial to arriving at viable solutions and to ensuring that the evaluation process is fair and rigorous. In some cases a "we'll know information technology when we come across it" approach is reasonable—for example, when a visitor is looking for a new branding strategy. Most of the time, however, information technology is a sign that earlier steps in the process have not been approached with sufficient rigor.
EWV stipulated that information technology would evaluate solutions on their ability to meet the criteria of low price, high storage chapters, low weight, and easy maintenance. It added that it would prefer designs that were modular (so that the unit would be easier to transport) and adjustable or salvageable or had multiple functions (so that owners could reuse the materials after the product's lifetime or sell them to others for various applications). The overarching goal was to keep costs depression and to help poor families justify the buy.
The Winner
Ultimately, the solution to EWV'south rainwater-storage problem came from someone outside the field: a German inventor whose company specialized in the blueprint of tourist submarines. The solution he proposed required no elaborate machinery; in fact, it had no pumps or moving parts. It was an established industrial technology that had not been applied to water storage: a plastic bag within a plastic bag with a tube at the height. The outer bag (fabricated of less-expensive, woven polypropylene) provided the construction's strength, while the inner handbag (made of more than-expensive, linear low-density polyethylene) was impermeable and could agree 125 gallons of h2o. The two-bag approach immune the inner bag to exist thinner, reducing the price of the production, while the outer handbag was strong enough to comprise a ton and a half of water.
The construction folded into a packet the size of a briefcase and weighed about eight pounds. In brusk, the solution was affordable, commercially viable, could exist hands 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 volume they purchase. Installers of the gutters, downspout, and base earn almost $6.)
EWV developed an initial version and tested it in Uganda, where the organization asked end users such questions equally What do you think of its weight? Does information technology see your needs? Even mundane bug similar color came into play: The woven outer numberless were white, which women pointed out would immediately look muddy. EWV modified the design on the footing of this input: For instance, it inverse the color of the device to brown, expanded its size to 350 gallons (while keeping the target price of no more than than $20 per 125 gallons of water storage), altered its shape to make it more than stable, and replaced the original siphon with an outlet tap.
Subsequently 14 months of field testing, EWV rolled out the commercial product in Uganda in March 2011. By the end of May 2012, 50 to 60 shops, village sales agents, and cooperatives were selling the product; more lxxx entrepreneurs had been trained to install it; and 1,418 units had been deployed in eight districts in southwestern Uganda.
EWV deems this a success at this phase in the rollout. Information technology hopes to make the units available in ten countries—and take tens or hundreds of thousands of units installed—inside five years. Ultimately, it believes, millions of units will be in utilize for a diverseness of applications, including household drinking water, irrigation, and construction. Interestingly, the master obstacle to getting people to purchase the device has been skepticism that something that comes in such a small packet (the size of a typical v-gallon jerrican) can concur the equivalent of 70 jerricans. Believing that the remedy is to bear witness villagers the installed production, EWV is currently testing various promotion and marketing programs.Equally the EWV story illustrates, critically analyzing and clearly articulating a problem can yield highly innovative solutions. Organizations that utilise these simple concepts and develop the skills and discipline to ask better questions and define their issues with more rigor can create strategic advantage, unlock truly groundbreaking innovation, and bulldoze better business functioning. Request better questions delivers better results.
A version of this article appeared in the September 2012 effect of Harvard Business Review.
Source: https://hbr.org/2012/09/are-you-solving-the-right-problem
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