More on Problem Definition

Apparently my If Matrix turns out to be a bit more controversial than I originally expected. These are some questions I received from readers and colleagues:

"Did you just put bureaucracy on such a simple problem definition?"
"Wouldn't you end up with the same thing if you focus on such an obvious thing as IT integration from the beginning?"
"Should we really create this matrix and put it in our problem definition report?"

The answer to all of the questions are: No, no, and no. Bureaucracy is the last thing in my mind when I conceptualized the simple matrix. If you look closer at the matrix, it is simply a quick tool to check whether we might jump too quickly on a path that might lead us to a wrong destination. So, this is not a requirement, and this is definitely not something that has to be in a report (unless you feel it is necessary to lay out all assumptions on paper).

And the purpose of this matrix is exactly to avoid thinking that something is obvious. Even if the solution is something obvious like integrating an IT system, framing the problem properly will lead us into developing a set of critical parameters on what the desired outcome of the project will be, and understanding where we should focus on. It will also allow us to have some flexibility on how we get to where we want. Just like when we want to go from City A to City B, if we insist that we should take Road X without understanding that the actual desire is City B, we will fail to see that there is another route via Road Y, which has less traffic than Road X, that can get us faster and safer to City B.

Have fun!

Test Your Assumption with If Matrix

Recently I had an interesting discussion with an executive in charge of Sales and Distribution. It goes like this:

Me: So, what is your biggest problem right now?
Exec: We need to find out a way on how we can integrate our IT system
Me: Why would you want to integrate your IT system?
Exec: We need to get a more real time sales data, on demand.
Me: So, are you actually looking for a way to integrate your IT system, or are you looking for a more real time sales data?
Exec: Well... Both...
Me: Assume you find out a way to integrate your IT system, but it does not give you real time, on demand sales data. Are you satisfied?
Exec: Of course not, but the only way to get on demand, real time data is by integrating IT system.

At this point, he suddenly had a revelation that he had made a big assumption.

Me: Assume you find a way to get real time sales data, on demand, do you still worry about IT integration?
Exec: No - So I guess what I need is not IT integration, I need on demand, real time sales data!

It is an interesting exercise to test your understanding of your problems by going back and forth what I called the If Matrix.



If you walk through the steps, you will find out your true headache that you need to address and get rid of your assumptions.

Good luck!

Problem Solving Series 6 - Improve the Situation

Here we are, almost done.

The next step after getting a good understanding of the source and reason of our problems, we then have to move forward to finding way(s) to improve the situation. I intentionally did not use 'solve the problem' here, because in many cases, a problem can not necessarily be solved immediately, but the situation can always be improved.