Consulting toolkit defining the question

CONSULTING TOOLKIT

Setting up the Problem

Defining the Question

© 2007-2012 IESIES Development Ltd. All Ltd. Reserved
© 2007-2012 Development Rights All Rights Reserved

If you start off your problem solving with a good question, you
greatly improve the chances of getting a good answer

“If I had an hour to save the world
I would spend 55 minutes defining the
problem and 5 minutes finding solutions”

Albert Einstein

© 2007-2012 IES Development Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Even if you are given a question, you should still challenge your
thinking to find a better one

WHY YOU NEED TO DEFINE YOUR OWN QUESTION

• Your client/boss/the case is unlikely to serve up the
best question

• In your search for a better question, you will
understand the problem better

• You will differentiate yourself


The question that you choose to answer determines the scope of
the solutions that you will consider

QUESTIONS DEFINE SCOPE
Question Implied Out of Scope
 Question 1: “How can Dell improve  Almost nothing
profit?”

 Question 2: “How can Dell improve • Ideas less than $100m
profit by $100m within 12 months?” • Ideas that take longer than
12 months to implement

 Question 3: “How can Dell improve • Ideas to grow revenue
profit by $100m within 12 months by • Cost cutting ideas outside
reducing manufacturing cost?” manufacturing

Which question would you prefer?

Your choice of question represents a trade-off in scope

Narrow scope

•Simplifies problem
•Reduces analytical
Broad scope
workload
•Allows maximum
creativity
•More likely best
solution is included


Exploring to find a better question is an iterative process

ITERATING THE KEY QUESTION

1. 1. “How can Dell improve profit?”
2. 2. “How can Dell increase profit $100m?”
3. 3. “How can Dell increase profit $100m
within 6 months?”
2 4. 4. “How can Dell increase profit $100m
within 6 months and build their brand?”
1
within 6 months by cutting costs?”
3 7 6 6. 6. “How can Dell increase profit $100m
within 6 months by reducing
5 manufacturing costs?
4
within 6 months by reducing
manufacturing costs without
compromising quality?”

020910 Chris Doran
© 2007-2012 IES Development Ltd. All Rights Reserved 5

There are techniques you can use to help you explore the
question
TIPS FOR ITERATING YOUR QUESTION

•“Chunk” up to the bigger picture and down to narrower detail
•Identify assumptions implied by your question and challenge
them e.g. “How can we manage our JV partner better?” has an
implied assumption that we need to manage our JV partner
•Try pumping up the volume e.g. instead of “How can we reach
breakeven?” try “How can we survive?”
•Try a “SMART” goal - $ order of magnitude and specific time
horizon
•Rephrase key words to liberate new perspectives
•Reframe negative questions as positive e.g. “How do we avoid
decline?” becomes “How do we grow ?”

When you have a question, ask yourself if it is the key one

CHECKING YOUR KEY QUESTION

1) Is this the most important (in $ terms) problem the company faces at
the moment? Will they be happy to get an answer?
2) Is it urgent to resolve?
3) Does the question give us the scope to tackle the root cause(s)?
4) Is this question as specific as it can be to narrow the scope?
5) Do we believe we will find an answer to this question?
6) Will the answer be action, not facts?

TIP: Avoid double-barrelled questions

Sometimes a “gap analysis” can be a useful way to explore the
problem Problem Framing
GAP ANALYSIS
Current Situation Desired Situation Gap


The most important stage in solving a problem is to define the
PROBLEM DEFINITION SHEET
Situation

Complication

Key Question

In Scope Out of Scope Criteria for selecting solution


The most important stage in solving a problem is to define the
PROBLEM DEFINITION SHEET
Situation

What are the important facts?

Complication
Why does action need to be taken? What is
the urgency? Is it a threat or an opportunity?

Key Question
What is the question our recommendation will answer?

In Scope Out of Scope Criteria for selecting solution

What is What is not
included in included in How will we select
our scope? our scope? the best solution?


Consulting toolkit defining the question

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