Book · Method
Problem Hacking: The Unexpected Guide to Effective Solutions is my book on problem-solving, published on 19 September 2019. It is also the name of the method I have used for years to analyze product and UX problems.
Is your work creating the impact you want? Or do you feel overworked and frustrated, wondering how you can shift from merely generating output to creating lasting results? Problem Hacking is a system to not just sidestep pitfalls, but identify the fastest, most effective routes of action.
Most managers switch quickly into solution mode without checking whether they really understand the problem. Moving too fast from identifying a problem to generating solutions produces ineffective results. Experts in problem-solving emphasize the importance of deeply understanding the problem before implementing solutions.
Here is a simple process to analyze product and UX problems. I have been using it for years in different shapes and forms:
These steps are simplified and generalized, but for the most part they help you get closer to an effective path. You can use them flexibly, depending on the type and complexity of the problem you are dealing with.
The first idea behind Problem Hacking is that the solution is in the problem. When a team brainstorms before the problem is well understood, many ideas get explored in a rush at the end of the meeting, and a compromise wins: something that takes a bit from everyone’s proposal but is not useful for anything in particular.
So the first step is to analyze the problem with data, and to describe it as simple symptoms everyone in the room can agree on. “How do we know?” is the question that shapes this. Once the team agrees on the symptoms and picks the most important one, finding a solution becomes focused.
I presented Problem Hacking at Codemotion Rome in 2019, and ran a full-day UX problem-solving workshop built on the framework at UX Salon in 2022.