7 proven techniques for writing a great problem statement

7 proven techniques for writing a great problem statement

If you want to ship great product that users love, you need to start with a clear understanding of what problem you’re trying to solve for your user and why. As product managers, this means carefully research and understand the problems we’re actually solving for our customers. To capture our thoughts and give clear definition, we write a document called a problem statement.

Start With the Solution

A good problem statement will lay out what you assume matters to customers and force you to describe what’s most useful to customers about your solution.

Try wrong answers

Think up seemingly wrong solutions to your problem

Skip the Preamble

Instead of starting with “Last quarter we launched XYZ feature and…”, skip straight to what the customer wants, when this need occurs, and what they’re trying to achieve by wanting this.

Talk to customers again

After even a handful of discussions, you’ll quickly uncover what does and doesn’t matter to your customers

Eliminate judgment words

If your product doesn’t solve a meaningful problem, then customers just won’t use it

Focus on a person

Because it’s people who buy and use your product, a good problem statement will be focused on a problem (or problems) for a person (or people).

Start designing

It’s easier to start designing solutions than to specify all the constraints up front

Source

Get in