Problem Solving 101
Every now and then comes a book that makes me think about my practice and shines a light on how to do it better. Ken Watanabe's Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People is one such book. Initially written to teach kids problem-solving approaches, this book became the most popular business book in Japan in 2007. In 120 pages Ken brilliantly describes explorative and iterative problem-solving approaches that make so much sense. Here is his approach:
- Understand the current situation
- Identify the root cause of the problem
- Develop an effective action plan
- Execute until the problem is solved, making modifications as necessary
He describes this approach in 3 fun-filled stories:
- Mushroom Lovers, a kids rock band, trying to get more people to attend their monthly concert
- John Octopus on figuring out how to save enough money to buy a computer to pursue his dream to become a CGI artist in Hollywood
- Kiwi on deciding which soccer school to attend
One thing is quite clear: this needs a rapid or iterative approach and will not fit well into a prescriptive approach.
The problem that I see is that most clients demand a prescriptive approach. For example, clients want to know upfront the number of interviews that will be done or the number of usability tests that will be conducted in the research study. Such decisions I think are to be made in context and only if there is a need for them. But I also acknowledge that clients need some indication of effort to plan for resources needed. So we have a problem. The rapid development approach seems to be a possible solution (a hypothesis) but I'll need to test it out on a few projects to see if it works!
Add tag Permalink | Saturday, April 18, 2009
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