GEW Recap: 5 Problem Solving Steps
This past week was Global Entrepreneurship Week, where I hosted an event session focused on the problem solving steps. The presentation went over pretty well so I thought I’d document my version of the steps in an article as well.
#1 Narrow Down Your Problem
If just thinking about your problem is overwhelming, then before you continue on to solving the problem, you’ve got to narrow it down. There can be a lot of different facets of an issue, but there is usually something that can be defined as the root of the problem. You want to determine what that is. Instead of trying to solve the symptoms of the problem, solving the root will hopefully solve a large portion of the whole thing easier than solving several mini-problems. If you’ve got multiple root problems, prioritize the most important or pressing problem first.
#2 Research & Understand Your Problem
Try to learn as much as you can about your root problem. If it’s a personal problem, then do some introspection. Think about how you’d like the problem to be solved, why you think you have this problem in the first place, and what aspects of the problem being solved are most important.
If it’s a business problem, and you’re hoping to solve it for others, make sure that you are talking to other people. You want to identify if others are having similar problems and if they’re currently attempting to solve it or have solved it for themselves. The two best ways to research a business problem are to use interviews and forums.
Both of these methods can give you a lot of information. One-on-one interviews can provide a lot of in-depth knowledge, because you can ask follow-up questions and dig deep into a person’s explanations. Forums, on the other hand, give you a lot of broad knowledge, because you’ve got a whole host of different people talking about a specific topic. You won’t necessarily be to get follow-up questions answered quickly, but seeing how many people are willing to participate in a discussion can also be valuable for your research.
#3 Brainstorm Avenues
Once you’ve got a great handle on understanding your problem, it’s time to start brainstorming next steps. I say next steps because with a difficult problem, it’s almost impossible to jump right to a solution. You’ll likely have to go through several iterations of this process, but with each step and repetition, you’ll learn more and more about the problem, and get closer to your solution.
You’ll want to get inspired in order to get a brainstorm started. If research doesn’t inspire your creativity, try talking to friends or a community of trusted colleagues. They can give you some great insights that can help to push you in the right direction.
So once you’ve got inspiration, you’re ready to start writing next steps down. Don’t worry about overthinking or editing the next step ideas during your brainstorm. Just write everything out while you can, and then you’ll be able to edit the list down in the next step.
#4 Evaluate & Select
Now looking over your brainstorm, begin to evaluate your options. You don’t need to cross or erase anything from your brainstorm list. Instead, mark or note the ideas that you feel are the most intriguing or something that you’re willing to try out immediately. You’ll want to prioritize from those selected, and figure out which is your top idea to try.
#5 Implement & Review
Take your top idea choice and implement it. You’ll want to implement your ideas one-by-one, so that you can clearly see the results of this implementation. While you’re doing this, make sure to document what is and isn’t working.
Once you’ve implemented a step to the best of your ability, take time to review it. Did the step work for you? Do you feel closer to the solution? Has this step created more or answered questions surrounding your problem? From here you can go back to any of the four steps before and repeat through the process. Remember that this is all a learning process, and no matter what happens you’ll be gaining more knowledge that will provide clarity to what your solution is.
Hopefully this inspires you to go out and solve problems that come up for you. I am passionate about helping people take the next steps to bringing their ideas to life, so if you need someone to bounce your idea or problem off of, don’t hesitate to contact me.
