How Might We? Translating problems into opportunities

[AJ Siegel]

Method Overview

It is often difficult for teams to move beyond a punch list of problems to fix and focus on envisioning a better tomorrow. By reframing the problems into How Might We… statements teams can then apply the platform’s capabilities to achieve the business’ outcome.

“How Might We…” statements need to create inspiration for a broad range of possible solutions. They shouldn’t solve the problem themselves, nor should they be too aspirational that the team can’t achieve them.

The structure of the statement opens up possibilities for solution ideation;

• “how” tells us we don’t have an answer yet and there are multiple possibilities
• “might” frees us from having the right answer and lets us explore different angles
• “we” represents the teamwork expected of the stakeholders working together.

 

Outcomes

• Prioritized list of areas to focus
• Team focused on moving forward rather than looking back

Prerequisites

• Identified long term goals for a process or business model
• Prioritized list of current state challenges (See: Prioritization)

Participants

Ideally this is conducted with participants that interact with the process or business model and leadership sponsoring the transformation.

Materials Needed

• Sticky Notes
• Sharpies
• Wall or Whiteboard

Process

1. Start with the top voted on problems/insights you uncovered in previous methods.
2. Each person can select 1-2 problems to focus on
3. Working independently, on a sticky note, rewrite the problem statements with the words “How might we…” in front
4. On a new sticky note, refine the wording for clarity.
5. On separate sticky notes, write out 2-3 different ways of framing the How Might we
6. Of the ~4 sticky notes you wrote, select the one that you believe will best generate ideas. Be careful not to:
   1. include proposed solutions
   2. be too broad in your wording
   3. be too simple in your wording
7. Everyone in the group now shares their selected How Might We… statement
8. Use these as prompts for an ideation activity.

Synthesis

Vote on the top 3-5 How Might We… statements and use them as prompts in an ideation session.