How can you identify the right problem during problem analysis in Creative Strategy?

Always important to focus on the ‘job to be done’. Creative is a communication tool, it’s an amplifier of your positioning either in a targeted segment or sophisticated mass market. If you know your position in market, that’s the problem your solving and who you’re solving it for, creative then needs to communicate this as effectively as possible.

I believe identifying the right problem during problem analysis in Creative Strategy often begins with deep understanding of context with keen sense of empathy for people involved. Having said that I believe in actively engaging in decentralized manner. By actively listening, thorough research, and engaging in open dialogue, I can uncover underlying issues & unmet needs. I also employ techniques like brainstorming, to explore potential problem areas. Ultimately, defining a problem that aligns with both the organization's goals and unique requirements of the situation. This approach ensures that the creative solutions developed are not only innovative but also tailored to address the core challenges effectively.

Great way to do this is to use the three whys: Get to an observation - ask why. Ask why of that answer. Ask why of that answer. You should have a deeper root cause. Start there.

I know and understand how exciting it feels when you have an idea you wish to implement on a project. However, it is extremely important for you to first understand the goal, stakeholder needs, and the audience for the said strategy. Observe, strategize, and then execute.

Start by deeply understanding the background and goals of the challenge; the more context you can gather through research, the better you can frame the core issue. And remember, a problem statement means little without grasping the broader challenge!

Start by asking the client or the project manager: What do you want to achieve? By honing in on the winning aspiration, as Professor Roger Martin would say, we can retroactively go back and determine if the original problem is truly the one we should be focusing on. Objectives must be SMART. A problem is where we are now and ideally a place we want to move away from. To truly measure if we've achieved that, we need quantifiable metrics. The second part involves conducting a reality check; can the product or service realistically fulfill the task at hand? Let's be honest and avoid overpromising. They have a problem to solve, so step into their shoes and figure out how to get it done. This is a good starting point. Good luck out there!

Ask questions. Keep asking questions. Ask more questions based on the answers to those questions. Go away and talk about it with your team. Then go back and ask more questions. Discuss, pry, postulate, play dumb if you have to, but get down to the base of things. That's where the right problem lives, behind all the vision statements and sales metrics. Back in the shadows.

I've found it to be very useful to ensure that clients/organizations/teams are able to define what the vision of success looks like. Identifying the problems then involves working backward in a sense. Identifying where you are in the present, and highlighting the critical gaps between the current state and where you would like to be. The strategies you develop at this point must be focused on closing the gaps, placing focus on those actions that will result in the highest impact on the organization in terms of the desired result/outcome. A strategy canvas is a wonderful way of identifying what needs to be done. Your tactics, once you determine where your high-impact strategies lie, will then be focused on driving the desired outcome.

Evaluate the urgency, feasibility and potential impact whilst prioritise problems - not every issue deserves attention right now! And it's easy to get distracted, so prioritisation helps us stay strategic, and that means top priorities can be tackled first and we can spend time on what really matters.

Successful creative strategy hinges on pinpointing the right problems. - Problem Framing; in all possible angles to get clear picture of the solution. - Solution Ideation; for all the framed problem sets to solve the angles. - Pilot Testing; to measure the level of effectiveness and impact of the solution. These growth hacking process will be the a scaleable method to get the solution which will be the ultimate goal to reframe the problem.

Reframing the problem is an important step in the creative process because not only does it help folks understand the context, it also helps the team see the “problem” as an opportunity for improvement and growth. So often problem statements are delivered and received is such a negative light, causing people to give up before they even get started. High performing, creative teams can quickly move past the “negative” associated with stating, defining, and understanding the problem so that they can focus on the solution. Giving yourself and your team the permission to workout the problem helps allow for this vital step in the creative process.

As they say, changing how you look at things can change what you see, and that can make all the difference in finding creative and effective solutions to complex problems.

I love this approach. Reframing opens up new creative possibilities and just by tweaking the perspective or phrasing, gains fresh insights. Reframing stretches thinking beyond initial assumptions and means that a problem is an opportunity in disguise! It can be applied to all aspects of business and life in general.

Validation is a tempting step to skip, but I've found this step doesn't just help me better understand the problem. It's also useful in helping me understand the context of the problem, discovering problems I might not have noticed before, and showing me original solutions team members are already using, like tool workarounds. Before I begin surveys and interviews, I create lists of questions to make sure I'm using everyone's time as effectively as possible. I also often find that the act of asking these questions also helps me understand how the problem is really impacting people. This helps make the people the focus of the solution, which usually leads to better results.

Most folks report the ripples on top of the lake, but few can help you find the rock that was thrown. You need a diversity of opinions and perspectives! That means you need to speak with multiple stakeholders and influencers. They all see "the problem" from a different perspective. Where you start isn't always where you finish. Seek as many voices and perspectives as possible.

VALIDATE VALIDATE VALIDATE. I say this time and again; validate through experimentation and feedback before diving into execution, because testing assumptions ensures you're solving a real, relevant issues and validating upfront prevents wasted efforts down the road. I've been there and don't want to see anyone else making unnecessary mistakes.

When you are iterating, make sure you are not taking big swings or making too many changes. In the past, I used to make big iterations (e.g. changing headline & image at same time), making it hard for me to understand how it performed since it could be headline or image or even both! If you don't isolate the variable out and only testing 1 at a time, you will always be playing BINGO and not really learning a lot from your creative strategy tests.

Revisit the problem as new learnings emerge. Success requires constant refinement of the framing and strategy and an iterative mindset keeps it nimble and responsive. Problem analysis is always a work in progress!

Sometimes identifying the right problem is easy. It may be the reason your company or product exists. So the creative strategy part is about how you creatively express that problem. Think about the old Mac vs PC ads to use an us vs them strategy. Exercise and fitness ads often feature before and after strategies. I saw a mention about turning weaknesses into strengths as well. Those are some strategies you can flex creatively for your product