Create a Good Problem in 20 Minutes

One of the first things to start a design thinking project, is understanding the problem. Before you can even start with understanding the issue, it helps to describe the problem. When everyone involved has the same wording and understanding of the problem, it will speed up future steps.

Based on the driver theory in sociocracy, defining the base problem for the rest of the design thinking process made tangible.

In sociocracy, a driver is created with the following statements:

1. Describe the current situation

2. Describe the effect of the situation on the organisation/society

3. Explain the need of the organisation/society relating to the situation

4. Explain the impact of fulfilling the need.

So, participants describe the current situation very factual.

For example, the kitchen is a mess.

What is the effect the messy kitchen has on our organisation? Well, there are no clean cups, so we need to do the dishes before we can go into a meeting. Final effect: all meetings start late...

We need a way to get to better meetings.

Impact: better meetings, less stress, more value.

The board includes an example (frame 1).