What is a problem statement?

Use this infographic to understand why it’s important to make a problem statement in the beginning of the creative problem solving process:

A problem statement is a guiding star for your creative thinking.

Three guidelines:

1. A problem statement is one sentence that sums up what you want to change.
2. It helps you find a more useful solution by providing a clear and inspiring aim.
3. You make a problem statement before you start thinking of solutions.

Tip: Do you know what problem you want to solve? Try asking the 5 Ws: Who? Where? What? Why? When?

Examples of good problem statements:

GENERATIVE PROBLEM STATEMENT FROM IDEO:

How might we get products to people without generating plastic waste?

TARGETED PROBLEM STATEMENT FROM MINDIPLY:

How might we increase sales with social media by 10% in three months?

How might we help employees in our company use design thinking techniques?