Decoding "Structured Problem Solving- Framing the Problem".

OVERVIEW.

Irrespective of the role a person takes up in his or her career, structured problem solving (commonly known as PS) is one of the key competencies demanded by employers and one of the best qualities an employee can possess while kick-starting his/her career. But this is often not learnt in a formal way but rather gained over experiences, commonly known as “experience based problem solving” in the PS world. As you can imagine, the road to reaching this state is often not smooth and comes with added costs depending on the number of experiences or mistakes and the costs associated with each of it. 

In this article, we aim to help readers develop a structured problem solving mindset, starting with the need of knowing the importance of “framing a problem or problem definition”. The insights and concepts discussed are based on real life examples from the consulting and engineering world which are blended in a way to help analysts, data scientists, or anybody interested in fact-based analysis get the best out of them. So let’s jump in and learn the importance of framing the problem or problem definition.

LESSONS LEARNT.

Our benchmark is the problem-solving process as practiced by top-tier consulting and engineering firms. At the most abstract level, such organizations develop solutions to clients’ strategic problems and, possibly, aid in the implementation of those solutions. 

Let’s start by summarizing the ways in which one could bring structure to their business problems and the mindset required to achieve this structure. 

    Feel free to be MECE. Structure is vital to rigorous fact- based problem-solving process. Structure is less a tool and more a way of life. The concept of MECE (pronounced “mee-see” and an acronym for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive). Being MECE in the context of problem solving means, separating your problem into distinct, non-overlapping issues while making sure that no issues relevant to your problem have been overlooked. We will see an example later. 

   Do not reinvent the wheel. Every organization leverages its experience with structured problem solving through numerous frame- works that help its employees rapidly visualize the outlines of many common business situations. Your organization may have its own frameworks, and you should take advantage of them if possible. My recommendation would be to use a problem definition tree or logic tree, which works greatly and we will see how to apply this.

   Every problem brought to you is unique. Frameworks are not magic bullets. Simply trying to squeeze every organization’s problems through the appropriate frameworks will not get you anything. 

   Give the benefit of the doubt to your Customer. Often as problem solvers we are in a hurry to provide solutions to our customers based on previous experiences of a problem which might seem similar. Instead of fitting a solution to your customer based on pre-conceived notions of the problem, it is very important that you understand the problem from a very basic level at first by giving the benefit of the doubt to the customer from the beginning till the end. 

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDANCE. 

The most common tool used to break down a problem would be a logic tree or the problem definition tree, which is nothing but a hierarchical listing of all the components of the problem starting at a 20,000 foot-view and progressively going downward.

Imagine a blue chip company named Rocket Machines approaching you. Let’s suppose that the basic question from their CEO is, “How could we increase our profits?”

The board mentioned they have 3 core businesses, Pumps, Sensors and ICs (Integrated circuits), which becomes the first split of your logic tree. You then proceed one step down, breaking apart each income stream into “Revenues” and “Expenses”. We pursue the branch of pumps for ease of understanding. If you further break down Revenues, they become “pump sales”, “pump leasing” and “pump service”. Suppose you understand that “pump sales” has most of the impact on “revenues,” you break it down further into NA, EU and ASEAN regions. You need to bear in mind the 80/20, pareto principle which applies in most cases while going deeper in the tree and can help you focus on key areas. Being able to snip out branches from the tree that don’t matter so that were focused on the branches that matter is an unbelievable problem solving skill that is not necessarily intuitive but can speed up the problem solving process largely.[i]

Remember, there are several ways to break down a problem, instead of an organizational hierarchy of the products, you may want to break it down by functions  such as sales & marketing, production, R&D, logistics, etc. The only rule here is that each branch of the tree must be mutually exclusive (non-overlapping) and collectively exhaustive (distinct in nature). This perspective can put your team in many potentially useful directions. 

Like any framework, this helps you clear away the clutter of a complex problem and bring order out of chaos by bringing a simplified representation of the real world. Charles Kettering, head of R&D at GM once said “A problem well defined, is half solved”. Now that you have understood how to frame a problem, let’s try and  define a simple set of ideas into a MECE framework. 

TRY IT OUT.

·     Think of your own organization and the NOVEL COVID-19, how can your organization recover from a pandemic like this ? List their pain areas in a MECE formation, how can they aim to be more profitable upon recovery? 

·     Imagine a non-business process such as Wedding Reception, Cocktail or a Family Vacation, can you come up with a MECE structuring of all the tasks in order for this process to work ? Think of key elements of the process for a Cocktail party, music, dance groups, food, liquor, décor, etc? Write them in the form of a MECE logic tree and go a step further to assign responsibilities. 

REFERENCES. 

[1]The Mckinsey Mind by Ethan M. Rasiel, Paul N. Friga, McGraw Hill Education (2003).