Problem Reframing Game
Write your problem as "How can we ...?", then ask yourself questions about it, one die roll at a time. At the end you rewrite it as a better problem.
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Problem Reframing Game
1. Write the problem as "How can we ...?" The book’s example is a band with this problem: "How can we sell more music?"
2. Roll a die and ask that kind of question. The die gives you a question word: 1 is HOW, 2 is WHY, 3 is WHICH, 4 is WHEN, 5 is WHO and 6 is WHAT. Say the band rolls a 6. That is a WHAT question: "What are the barriers to selling more music?" Their answers: fewer people are buying music, the economy is bad, not enough people know about them, or their music is not good.
3. Keep rolling and keep answering. A 2 gives a WHY question: "Why are people spending less on music?" Because they can get it for free online. A 4 gives a WHEN question: "When do people spend money on music?" When they buy special editions with extra content, or when they see live gigs. A 1 is a HOW question, and the band uses it to rephrase the problem: "How do we make what we sell better than the versions people get for free?" A 5 gives a WHO question: "Who pays for extra content when they can get the music free elsewhere?" Die-hard fans, they decide.
4. At the last step, rewrite the problem. Using what they found, the band rewrites it as: "How can we make our music releases special enough that die-hard fans will pay good money to buy them?" The book says that is a more tangible problem to crack than the one they started with.
5. Notice that other rewrites were possible. Different answers would have led somewhere else. The book gives one example: not trying to sell music at all, and using the recordings to promote live gigs instead, which opens up a different set of solutions. The point is that the first way you state a problem is not the only way.
Now try it on a problem of your own below.
How to play
- Write your problem. Start it with “How can we …”, for example “How can we sell more music?”
- Roll the die. It gives you a kind of question: 1 is HOW, 2 is WHY, 3 is WHICH, 4 is WHEN, 5 is WHO and 6 is WHAT.
- Ask that question about your problem and answer it. Write your own question if you like, then your answer. There are eight steps.
- Rewrite the problem. At the last space, use what you found to write the problem again as “How can we …?” The book says to keep it simple and clear.
Why it works
The book’s point in this chapter is that better questions get better answers. Its example is a band. If the band asks “How do we sell more of our music?”, it has already assumed that selling music is the best way to make money from music. If it asks “How do we make money from our music?”, it has not. The two questions lead to very different answers.
The game makes you question the first version of your problem from six angles before you try to solve it. The rewrite at the end is the real result, and it is often more specific and easier to act on than the problem you started with.
What the six questions are for
The die only gives you the kind of question. What you ask is up to you. In the book’s example, the band’s WHAT question was about the barriers to selling music, its WHY question was about why people spend less, and its WHEN question was about when people do spend money. A HOW roll can be used to rephrase the problem, and a WHO roll asks who is involved, such as who pays for extra content when the music is free elsewhere.
Where this comes from
This is the What’s Your Problem? board game at the end of the Answer Is in the Question chapter, played on screen. The rules and the example are the book’s. The board has eight question spaces, and so does this version. Nothing you type leaves your browser and nothing is stored.
Questions
What if I roll the same word twice? That is allowed. Ask a different question each time.
What if my answer shows I picked the wrong problem? Good. That is what the game is for. You can play again with the new problem.
Is there a right answer? No. The book says different answers could have led the band to a different rewrite, such as using the recordings to promote live gigs instead of trying to sell them.