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.
- Having this on paper helps your team focus its energy on the parts of the feature that solve the most important parts for your customers.
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.
- A focused problem statement will help align the rest of your team throughout the design and build process
Talk to customers again
After even a handful of discussions, you’ll quickly uncover what does and doesn’t matter to your customers
- Concepts that seemed vague or issues that seemed important come into sharp relief when you talk to the people who use your product
- Make progress by going back and clarifying these points with your customers
Eliminate judgment words
If your product doesn’t solve a meaningful problem, then customers just won’t use it
- Replace judgment words with data-based statements
- Clearly state what customers are confused about
- Framing problems is hard, but getting it right determines the quality of the product your team ships
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
