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Problem Specification

Learn how to identify the most important problem you need to focus time and attention to.

Unease creates disease, unease occurs when you don't fully commit to your decisions. All that matters is your state of mind, grow good judgement to take decisions that keep you in the flow of progress.

Types of Problem​

What type of problem are you solving? What type of decisions do need to make?

  • NP Hard Problems are particularly challenging because they cannot be solved in polynomial time, but a proposed solution can be quickly verified in polynomial time. Examples of NP-hard problems include the Traveling Salesman Problem, the Knapsack Problem, and the Integer Programming Problem.
  • Chaotic problems are difficult to understand the relation between cause and effect. No obvious pattern to follow. Financial markets, highly dynamic and personal, results reflect changes in time and complex data structures. Ask what type of black swan events your systems could be exposed to.
  • Complex problems require analysis and reflection, ad-hoc problem solving with workflows to help solve the problem. Resolution is not a predictor of the future. Experts don't exist Experimentation and outcomes prove what works.
  • Complicated problmes require domain expertise/experience to understand the problem and how to fix with decision tree in the workflow map. Best practice analysis
  • Simple: The impact of cause and effect are well-defined. Simple data analysis to monitor and easily understood workflows to prevent or fix problems without much experience. Best practice exists

Source of Truth​

Understand the true nature of the problem you are trying to solve by gathering job to be done stories to map reality and gain perspectives of what success looks like.

Follow each stream to the extremesto understand the intended flow of value from inputs to expected outcomes to identify where blockages (opportunities for improvement) are occuring.

  1. Walk downstream to confirm outputs are as required
  2. Walk upstream to identify inputs are as expected
  3. Identify where state changes occur
  4. What tools and protocols are used to make state changes?
  5. Are changes as expected? Where is there waste?
  6. Step back to take in the big picture.
  7. Evolve more insightful questions
  8. Repeat

Better a gaping wound that silent cancer. Identifying the true problem takes honesty, humility and integrity.

danger

Negativity and pessimism is widely and falsely misinterpreted as intelligence.

Sources of Waste​

Sources of waste taken from Kaizen.

  • Defects: Scrap or products that require rework.
  • Excess processing: Products that must be repaired to satisfy customers needs.
  • Overproduction: When there are more parts in production than customers are purchasing. This type of waste spells big trouble for an organization.
  • Waiting: A person or process inaction on the manufacturing line.
  • Inventory: A valuable product or material that is waiting for processing or to be sold.
  • Transportation: Moving a product or material and the costs generated by this process.
  • Moving: Excessive movement of people or machines. It is more common to talk about people movement, as this leads to wasted effort and time.
  • Non-utilized talent: When the management team fails to ensure that all the potential and experience of its people are being used. This is the worst of the eight wastes.
Mantra

Follow the flow upstream to solve the problem at source

Problem Statement​

A problem well stated is half solved.

A problem statement should describe an undesirable gap between the current-state level of performance and the desired future-state level of performance. Key elements of an effective problem statement include:

tip

Focus singularly on the classification of the problem not looking solutions!

Checklist​

To write a valuable problem statement, work through the following:

  • What is the problem that needs to be solved?
  • Where is the problem observed? (location, products)
  • What is the origin of the problem?
  • Who is impacted? (customers, businesses, departments)
  • When does the problem occur? (triggers)
  • Why the problem matters, and why it prevents progress.
  • How is the problem observed? (symptoms)
  • How often is the problem observed? (error rate, magnitude, trend)
  • Triggers and trends for where the problem is observed and the path it is following.
  • Quantify loss of money, time, quality, environmental, motivation etc
  • Importance to individuals and organisations to quantify urgency.

Gap Analysis​

A problem statement should include absolute or relative measures of the problem that quantify that gap. Include everything from financial costs, damaged morale to literal physical objects blocking a path.

Mantra

Measure what matters

Business Case​

Focus on the factors surrounding the issue that build the case for taking it seriously.

  • Provide questions for the team to think about during brainstorming sessions.
  • Create links to proposed solutions.

Use understanding of the problem to build empathy and influence valuable action.

Six Sigma

Disciplines​

Context​