I've heard it said, "To learn a new truth read an old book." Today I want to tell you about an essential conversational skill that I learned from an out-of-print book that I absorbed many years ago. What I learned positively impacts my design leadership work to this day.

The skill described in this book is a proven game-changer for me as I face the predictable challenges that occur in leading groups of people on the journey of product and solution design. It also measurably improves my ability to connect with people in my personal life.

Anyone can learn this skill. Mastering it is a lifelong and worthy pursuit. It provides a clearer understanding of issues and what to do about them. As a result, design conversations stay on track when issues occur. They get identified with greater understanding...and they get resolved.

If you want more confidence in how to handle issues when they occur, the life skill taught in an out-of-print book, and that I introduce in this video, will absolutely help you in your work and throughout your life.

A problem involves a person in the context of a specific predicament. The problem is the target, the raison d'être, for any solution and, by extension, solution designer/marketer.

A person experiencing a problem expresses it through an emotion. Describing the circumstances that are causing that emotion, in words a user would use however strong or subtle, provides a foundation of empathy through which to envision an ideal solution. It is important to not overlook the emotion because it creates personal resonance with the problem and with the solution being marketed.

From a marketing perspective, borrowing a concept from Pragmatic Marketing, a “market” is a group of people who share the same problem. Therefore, understanding and clearly defining the problem is the cornerstone of any solution to be created and/or marketed. This makes a highly refined problem statement all the more valuable.

Who needs a solution statement? Solution designers need to understand the context under which a problem occurs. The more empathy the designer has for the person experiencing the problem the better. Product managers need to know out of all the problem statements that exist, which ones are urgent and pervasive. That set represents the high potency candidate problems for which to design and market solutions.

A problem statement is a sentence or two that contains these descriptive elements:

1. A description of the person 
   Name or describe the business role or life role of the person.
2. When or under what conditions the problem occurs
   Describe what goal they are trying to achieve or when does it happen?
3. An emotion they experience
   Describe this so that an empathetic sense of connection to the person experiencing the problem is established.
4. A description of the affect the problem has on their quality of life
   Use language that the person would use in their business or life context.​​

​
​Mad-Lib Style Templates
To help demonstrate what this might look like in the abstract, her are some templates:

• As a       (1)      , when       (2)      , I am       (3)        because       (4)      .
  
  
• As a       (1)      , I am       (2)      , when       (3)        because       (4)      .

​Examples
Here are two examples of problems statements based on conversations I've or observations I've had in just the past day:

• As an iPhone user, when I can't find my AirPod case I panic and scramble looking all over and retracing my steps because they are so hard to locate and costly to replace.
• As a coach, in a live practice or game setting when tensions are already high to begin with, someone lets something denigrating fly out of their mouth to one of the players. In that moment, I’m flustered because I’m supposed to lead here and I draw a blank on what to say or do. I’m unsure of what to do in response because I’m not experienced in how to handle something like this. Over the long-haul, letting this kind of communication go unchallenged affects the team, our institution, our relationships and our friendships.

Best Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid

• Do use first person
• Do use descriptive statements that you have actually observed people saying
• Do create multiple statements rather than trying to blend multiple problems into one
• Don't describe the solution or use solution jargon
• Don't embellish using false emotion or projection (do keep your BS detector on)

Not all problems have solutions. But every problem has a resolution that can be framed, conversationally speaking, in an ideal solution statement, Any marketing conversation naturally goes towards the solution.

Ideal Solution Statement
An ideal solution statement is an aspirational statement expressed in the language of the person experiencing the problem. It provides a target to aim for in terms of value delivered by a solution.

This typically describes an improvement in the quality of life of the person experiencing the problem who employs the solution. It describes the affect of the solution (what it does) without describing the solution (how it does it).

Who needs an ideal solution statement? This description is very useful target for a solutions designer. It influences product design as they develop candidate solutions that aspire to the expressed value. It provides a marketer with clarity of context and guidance to influence product positioning, persona development, user stories, messaging and other product management deliverables.

An ideal solution statement is a sentence or two that:

• Begins with the phrase, "The ideal solution would..."
• May contains the phrase "so that" or "the ability to"

​Examples
Here are ideal solution statements based on the aforementioned problem statements:

• The ideal solution would provide me the ability to know where my AirPod case is located right now so that I can find it easily.
• The ideal solution would give me the know-how and confidence to respond appropriately in the moment and over the long-haul so that values of personal respect and dignity are established and reinforced in our team and in our institution.

​Best Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid

• Do use first person
• Do describe the business or quality-of-life improvement delivered
• Do write the first draft of the statement soon after producing the problem statement because it so naturally flows afterwards
• Do create one ideal solution statement per problem statement
• Don't describe components of the solution or use solution jargon

​Subscribe to my free blog updates to receive content that vividly describes the techniques and leadership skills that embody the practice of agile design methods. The blog contains not only my ideas on the topic, but the insight of others who actively work and thrive wholeheartedly in the realms of collaborative creativity and solution design.

When asked authentically, this three-syllable question creates connectedness, trust and understanding with anyone, even a person you have just met.

This matters because empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is an essential ingredient in the process of designing solutions for people.

How can we understand how others are feeling unless we ask? Asking the question unlocks the potential to observe problems that would otherwise go unobserved. This is a gold mine of understanding for solutions designers.

Understanding how people in the world are feeling is easy. Just ask them. They'll tell you. Listen to them and learn what problems they are experiencing. It will inform your design decisions.

When the woman you are talking with senses that you care enough about her to ask how her day is going, it breathes fresh life into the conversation, even if she is having a bad day. Somehow when you care enough to ask, it reaffirms her humanity and causes her to reflect on how she's feeling.

If we, as solutions designers, practice this kind of authentic caring, listening and learning on an ongoing basis, we tap into a limitless supply of priceless insight for free by simply exercising a common courtesy towards another person.

Your empathy for people and willingness to be vulnerable enough to go there immensely affect your solution design.

- Chuck

Subscribe to my free blog updateseepurl.com/bHSiMX to receive content that vividly describes the techniques and leadership skills that embody the practice of agile design methods. The blog contains not only my ideas on the topic, but the insight of others who actively work and thrive wholeheartedly in the realms of collaborative creativity.

I hope you'll get a lot of benefit from it.