Step-by-step process to craft your problem (HMW) statement (5 of n — Product management from ground up)
Prologue
As a part of the curriculum of digital product design-intensive(DPDI) by Karthi (our instructor) at Xperian School, each of the students is working on a problem statement of their choice to take it from the idea stage to an MVP stage where there is a proven pull for the product from users.
My problem statement is centred around those individuals who conduct workshops or classes on their skills or hobbies or subject expertise — for example — guitar classes, cooking workshops, painting workshops, etc.
Each of the design projects has to be completed by following the principles taught in the course. First of those is crafting the how might we (HMW) statement. This statement would define the problem to be solved. Below is a step-by-step process for the same, applied to my problem statement. Do note that this technique takes a lot of practice and information shared here is only based on my first experience with the method. Thus, I would advise anyone to practice this as many times as possible to get a hold of this.
My HMW statement
HMW build a product/service allowing individuals with a skill or hobby or subject expertise to efficiently manage all workflows and engage with interested individuals or participants
The steps to arrive at such a statement are quite exciting and straightforward if followed in the sequence.
Step 1: Write down the problem as you know it in plain simple English. Here is an example. Just put it down under the heading — “What I think I should solve”. On advice — Do not think of what you are putting down. Just put down whatever comes to your mind related to that problem.
Step 2: Remove all the grammar words. Words such as a, an, the, of, and, etc. can be removed so that the focus is narrowed down to the essential keywords.
Step 3: Pick name, place and things from the remaining set of words. Sounds a bit like “Uh okay! What is rocket science in this”. Well, there isn’t any. Just keep doing this till the end to see what happens.
Step 4: Club set of words or phrases into Emotion, Context, People. And now you must be feeling like “Ehh! What did we do in the last step then”. Just hold on for a little longer.
Step 5: Divide the words or phrases into problem/solution. That is any phrase or word that speaks about the problem should be in the problem bucket, and any phrase or word that speaks about the solution should be in the solution bucket. Post doing this chuck all the words inside the solution bucket and have only the problem bucket in front of you.
Step 6: State the possible problem areas. If I had to define a problem area, it would be something like the industry in which you want to play. So the industry could be healthcare, food, fitness, insurance, ticketing, etc.
Step 7: Start writing the problem in the form of how might we (HMW) statements. There is a template that one can start with, but with time, I feel that your cognition will automatically begin putting things together. In fact, for those of you wondering what use were the above steps for — Going through the above steps, your mind would have already started putting things together since you would have written a lot of words down that your mind would have already picked up and started knitting a story around. So now when you start writing the HMW statement, you keep writing down until you feel good about the statement post which you can go through a checklist to verify if the HMW statement is adequate.
So, the template one could follow is — “HMW____ a _____ for _______ so that _____”. So the first blank needs to be filled with a verb as common as build, etc., the second with the offering such as product or service, the third with the type of customers such as young millennial college-goers and the fourth with what the customer or user would do with the offering. P.S.: I did not follow the template so diligently :P.
My Learning
Before I started the process, I thought this is some magical wand, but then after doing, I just thought — “It is simple yet powerful”. You are just noting things down and clearing the clutter from your mind to bring into focus the words or ideas that are critical in defining your problem statement. It always helps to write things down as they are in your head and then break them until you feel that you have arrived at what you wanted to get.
