CHARTER
Step 1 | Define the challenge
Albert Einstein said his best innovation came from first carefully analyzing a challenge. He once famously quipped, “If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.”
At the earliest outset, it’s important to explore, understand, and define the challenge. The best way to define the challenge is to start by asking the right questions. This step of Chartering typically happens as a meeting or series of meetings with a key sponsor who wants to embark on a design journey. Here are some key questions to ask and a suggested approach for framing a challenge statement to help guide your meeting.
Key Questions to Ask:
What are the key questions facing your company/division?
What is the #1 challenge and why?
What are the needs, wants, and pain points of 1) your consumers, and 2) other key stakeholders (dealers, installers, retailers, etc.)?
What are the emerging disruptions for your market?
What are the barriers to innovation?
What information is needed to answer these questions?
What are the disruptive trends, data points, and customer/ stakeholder insights that will impact our design thinking approach? These will be the inspiration scan categories in the Inspiration phase of the design journey, where we will invest in gathering data prior to the accelerated design session.
Frame the Challenge with “How might we…?” (HMW)
Once the key questions have been asked, it’s time to define the challenge. We’ve found framing the challenge statement as a “How might we…?” question is the best way to spur the innovation process. IDEO’s Tim Brown agrees. In his book Change by Design, Brown says that “every design challenge at IDEO begins with a ‘How might we…’” The words we use to describe a problem can influence our ability to solve it. Turning a challenge statement into an open-ended question positions the mind to address problems through creativity, rather than focusing on the negative fact that a problem exists. The HMW question alludes that there are solutions. The challenge isn’t the end of the story.
During the chartering phase, it’s important to craft a HMW challenge statement that is human-centered and broad enough to keep options open, as opposed to having a solution already baked in. This will enable more innovative ideation and opportunity generation in upcoming phases of the design journey.
- Consider the context of your challenge. Make sure it’s neither too narrow, nor too broad.
- "Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context - a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.” (Eliel Saarinen)
- Focus your challenge on human experience. People should always be at the center!
