Ford NGL Module 5 Section 5 Lecture 2

1. Module 5
Facilitating Challenge Case
Exploration
Section 5
Lecture 2: Developing Problem Statements
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2. Problem Statement
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Before students start
designing solutions, it’s
important they know what they
are designing towards, as well
as who the users are who will
be putting the solution into
effect. This means they need
to create a focused, targeted
problem statement. These
problem statements should
derive from the insights they
developed earlier.

3. Criteria for Effective Problem Statements
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There are a few criteria
that help students
determine whether they
have created a good
problem statement.
Review the following
three criteria for effective
problem solving
statements.

4. Effective Problem Statements…
...are concise. They can be boiled down into one
sentence. They can be communicated to an end
user easily and understandably.
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5. Effective Problem Statements…
...describe in specific terms what is wrong and
which users are impacted.
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6. Effective Problem Statements…
...are measureable - the problem can be
quantified in some way (such as degree or
frequency).
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7. Teams can use any format for
problem statements that suit their
team context; for example, if
students have already learned to
write problem statements in science
or English, they should use the same
format here. However, if no format
has already been introduced, the
Point of View (POV) format is easy
to use, emerges directly from
empathy data and insights, and
lends itself well to ideation and
prototyping.
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Point of View Format

8. Point of View statements are developed after students have
generated insights and themes. They can then step back
and begin to write statements about what specific
stakeholders need, based on the data they have gathered.
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Point of View Statements

9. Students should not just
identify the user they
have in mind, but also list
as many relevant
adjectives as they can
think of to help describe
that user, based on their
empathy experiences.
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Describe User with Multiple Adjectives

10. These should be the most pressing, high priority
needs that the students observed during their
empathy and systems mapping experiences.
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Describe User’s Needs Using Verbs

11. Using the insights developed earlier, students
connect them to the user’s needs through language
like “because,” “as a result of,” “in spite of,” or other
linking terms. This insight should be something that is
a springboard for design ideas.
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Link Need to an Insight

12. A sample POV statement might look something like
one of these examples:
• “Disengaged, overtired, artistic, intellectually curious
14 year old boy needs motivation to go to school
because he doesn’t connect with the other students
he sees during school hours.”
• “Punctual, rushed, multitasking assembly worker
needs a way to easily recycle plastic parts because
her current schedule allows no time to deviate from
assembly on the line to find recycling bins.”
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Sample POV Statement

13. Now return to the
lecture to continue your
exploration of Problem
Statements.
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