How to Understand Problems

How to Understand Problems

1. Get Involved

   • Observe some aspect of their life and have them teach you about it

2. Audience

   • Who are you trying to help and why
   • Communicating with the people
     • What kind of help do they need? What are their problems, or how to help them?
     • Surveys, Interviews, Observations, Secondary research
       • Surveys communicate with people in a structured way, which produces biased responses and shallow in insight.
       • Interviews communicate with people in a synchronous, personal, semi-structured way, getting you deeper insights but at the cost of more time and a smaller range of people.
       • Secondary research does not communicate with people, but uses published research papers, books, and other sources.
       • Observations communicate with people by connecting you with their spaces but with an even greater time commitment than interviews.
   • Every single solution will meet some people’s needs while failing to meet others

3. Understand that problems are very complex

   • Splitting it into smaller parts to solve