Structured Problem solving Strategies.

Structured thinking is required to understand the problem. It helps you get deep insights into the problem. A few prerequisites for structured problem solving are:

1. Difference between structured and unstructured approach.

2. How to use Issue trees to understand problems.

3. Making your structure MECE (Mutual Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive).
   

Let us attempt to reconcile all of this in a genuine problem-solving framework.

Any issue, whether it be an issue during an interview or an issue at work, can be solved using the following four steps.

1. Understand the Situation.

2. Identify the Root Cause.

3. Develop an effective Action Plan.

4. Execute and Modify, until it is resolved.

Let's take a deep dive into it:

1. Understand the Situation: It is important to have a thorough understanding of the situation before starting any problem-solving exercises.

1. Business:

1. What are the business goals? Their Visions and mission.

2. Identifying what kind of service they are providing.

3. How they are providing their service (freemium, premium, SAAS etc).

4. Where they are operating.

2. User:

1. Who are they? Demographics?

2. Why do they love using this product? What’s their need?

3. Is the product meeting those needs?

4. Issue / Pain-Point they have while using the product?

3. Specific Problem:

1. How long has the problem occurred?

2. Is this happening specific to us or it is a Industry wide?

3. Is it affecting all the users or to a specific group of users?

4. What is the impact in the business with this problem?

2. Identify the Root Cause: 

1. Important to deep dive into the root cause.

2. Address the symptom and their causes.

3. Look for the Internal and External factors and deep dive into each branch using Issue tree.

3. Develop an effective Action Plan: Once you identify the root cause, Ideate on Solutions, and choose the best and appropriate (based on cost benefit, Effort-Impact) one from them. Build Action plan:

1. By onboarding different team members of the board.

2. Define the timeline for the product with your team.

3. Define the success criteria (North star metric).

4. Execute and Modify, until it is resolved: once the best solution is identified, start implementing according to the action plan. You might face unexpected difficulties and delay while implementation. This might require a modification to your solution which can be done by relooking into your solution and Reiterating it.

Thank You for reading my blog. Happy Learning :) #DilSePM.