A client just shared a story with me: as soon as ChatGPT became “mainstream”, they jumped on the wagon and included AI in their services. Everybody did it, so the business decided: we need to do it too.

In psychology, we call it the bandwagon effect or herd mentality: it’s quite natural to want to fit in and conform with the norm. But it’s also the panic mode—not wanting to lose against the competition.

The downside? These decisions are often made under high pressure, with little evidence or understanding of what the real problem is. In this case, a lot of budget and time were invested with no real benefit. The team wasn’t clear on what exactly they wanted to solve—so they focused on some obvious feature ideas that weren’t really beneficial to the customer. And, as a result, they didn’t have any meaningful business impact either.

It’s a familiar story. When I was working in-house, this was one of my biggest frustrations: product decisions were often driven top-down, with little evidence. Even though we had insights from customer research pointing in the opposite direction, we had little influence.

But it doesn’t take much to get it right—it’s mostly about communication and alignment across departments. It’s about proper Problem Framing. Let’s dive in.

What is Problem Framing?

This article from Mural describes it well:

Problem framing is a process for analyzing, understanding, and ultimately defining a problem or challenge in order to develop an effective solution.

Problem framing is more than just stating a problem or issue like: “Everybody uses ChatGPT—our customers will expect us to have AI integrations too.”

It’s about understanding:

• the (market) landscape
• the user needs
• the business goals
• and the root causes

In short: it’s about gaining clarity before jumping into execution.

Why is Problem Framing Important?

Without a clear understanding of the problem, you risk running in the wrong direction. As mentioned above, lots of effort, budget, and time might be invested for no real outcome.

But it’s not just resources you might lose—it’s also team motivation. Pouring your heart into work that doesn’t make a dent can be deeply frustrating. Over time, it affects morale, buy-in, and retention.

And to be clear: I’m not saying problem framing is a magic wand that turns every decision into a success. Especially with innovation, there will be failures. But at least, let it be a failure we chose together—based on what we knew and believed at the time.

By bringing people together and sharing knowledge around:

• What are we solving?
• For whom?
• Why does it matter?

you will be able to reduce the risk of solving the wrong problem, you will gain more buy-in, and you can make more informed decisions.

Examples for Solving the Wrong Problem

Here are some common examples I come across over and over. The shared pattern: a problem is stated at surface level and usually focused on a single element – without looking deeper or understanding root causes and big-picture goals.

“We need to modernize our website”

Yes, there are a lot of websites that look “outdated.” And it’s a fair wish to want to look more “modern.” But it shouldn’t stop there.

When we talk about a look, we want to express something with it, we want to be perceived in a certain way. When you are thinking about a new facelift, ask yourself:

• What does our brand stand for?
• How do we want to be perceived?
• How does our website currently express our brand?
• What’s the first impression we want our customers to have about us?

“Competitor X has this feature, we need it too.”

The story I started with at the top. It’s a common one. And also valid: we need to stay competitive. And yes, there are trends and technical innovations we need to adapt to keep moving.

But don’t do it blindly. Don’t do it “just because.” Instead ask:

• What opportunities does this new feature/technology/trend offer?
• Looking at examples that are already out there: what is working and what is not working?
• What are OUR customers struggling with the most?
• How will this feature help our customers (and how relevant is it)?

“Let’s fix the bounce rate”

Using metrics is great. Numbers can be powerful – but we need to use them with a grain of salt.

A number by itself isn’t telling you much. You have x amount of daily visitors, your bounce rate is y – is this a lot or a little?

Numbers become meaningful when we add comparison: is the bounce rate on this page much higher (or lower) than on other pages?

And even then: a number will only tell you the WHAT. But not the WHY.

Even if you have a page with a super high bounce rate, this could actually be a good thing. If you answer the question a user was looking for: boom – they came in, found what they needed, and left. Happy. (Think blog posts, recipes, webinar sign-ups, contact forms.)

But it could also be the case that a user didn’t find what they wanted, your content didn’t meet their expectations, and they left. Unhappy.

Before you can “fix the bounce rate,” you need to be aware of the actual problem:

• What do we want our users to do on our site/on this page?
• Why are people leaving – do they actually have a problem?
• Where do people spend most vs. least time on our site?
• What would be our ideal “user flow” for our site? And how does it look today?

“Let’s improve SEO”

Similar to the bounce rate problem. Of course, we want to be found. Everyone is competing for the top ranks.

But in order to improve “findability,” you need to understand your customer’s search behaviour. Do you?

It starts with basic questions like:

• Who is our target audience?
• What are their biggest challenges? What do they need help with?
• What are they looking for (what keywords do they use)?
• How are they searching (ChatGPT is changing our typical Google ranking mindset drastically)?
• Where do people currently enter our site mostly from?
• How much organic vs. referral traffic do we get?

“We just need better content”

Or: we need to clean up/update our content. It’s like household work: we need to clean up now and then to make room for new items. Another valid requirement. But do you actually know what’s working and what’s not?

You can look at numbers again – and they will tell you which part of your site is visited most often, how much time someone spends on it… But it won’t tell you what a user is actually thinking about your content: is it useful? Will they talk about you and recommend your content to others?

Ask:

• How do we measure “successful content”?
• What content needs to be removed vs. updated vs. added?
• Are we providing useful content for our customers?
• What content works best, what content isn’t working?
• Do our users find the content?
• What do we want our users to do with the content?

How to Get Started with Problem Framing

Most problem framing issues happen because the problem is either too vague or overly focused on a specific area – without understanding the broader context.

Here’s a more helpful way to approach it:

Step 1: State the current problem

Start with how the issue is currently being described.

Example: “Our website is outdated.”

This gives you a jumping-off point. But it’s only the start.

Step 2: Look at the problem from two angles

Now dive deeper into the problem by looking at two perspectives:

From the customer’s perspective:

• What is the user struggling with?
• What impression are they getting?
• What are the consequences of this problem?

Example: “Customers get the wrong impression about our brand. They think of us as old-school and not up to date. They don’t expect us to offer innovative services.”

From the business perspective:

• What impact does this problem have?
• What data supports it?

Example: “We’re losing leads. We don’t compare well with competitors.”

Step 3: Define the gap between current and ideal

Clarify what’s wrong today, and what you want instead.

Example: Current: “Our design is dark, feels bureaucratic and outdated.” Ideal: “We want to be perceived as innovative, modern, and ahead of the curve.”

Step 4: Craft a meaningful problem statement

Now that you’ve unpacked the issue, rewrite the problem statement.

Example: Instead of: “We need to modernize our website,” try: “Our brand is not perceived as innovative or up-to-date, which hurts our competitive edge.”

This is now a business problem you can actually do something about. And now – only now – you can start thinking about possible solutions.

Step 5: Brainstorm solutions and prioritize

As you can see in the example above: the solution is actually much more than a visual redesign. It’s about creating a full brand experience.

That might include:

• Creating more trend-focused content
• Offering webinars and thought leadership pieces
• Including better brand storytelling during sales conversations
• Sending out email updates on new features and product development
• Showing presence at innovation-focused events and conferences

By framing the problem properly, you’re not just “modernizing a website.” You’re making sure that you are investing time and budget to gain real outcome.

Helpful Methods & Team Exercises

Problem framing is about getting an alignment within a team – and sometimes across teams. You’re best approach will be to bring a variety of people together to create alignment. It doesn’t have to be a full-day workshop (even though this would be helpful if you are REALLY unclear about business goals and user needs).

Here are some tools I use in meetings and working sessions.

Value Proposition Canvas

A great and simple tool that helps you to define the actual value of your product or service offering by focusing on what your customer actually needs. It helps break down:

• Customer jobs, pains, and gains
• Your product’s pain relievers and gain creators

This exercise helps teams move away from internal assumptions and get clearer on the messaging about external value.

Further resources:

The Value Proposition Canvas (by the Interaction Design Foundation)

Value Proposition Design Workshop (by Divergent Thinking Design)

Fishbone Diagram (Root Cause Analysis)

A fishbone diagram, or cause-and-effect diagram, is helpful when you’re stuck in symptom mode (“conversion is down!”), but you need to dig deeper.

• Start with the observed problem
• Define categories for potential causes (content, process, trends, competition, usability, people…)
• For each category, brainstorm specific causes that might contribute to your problem.
• Review all your ideas and identify the most impactful root causes.

This exercise helps teams step back and spot the real contributing factors.

Further resources:

Video about fishbone exercise (by Miro)

Fishbone analysis and templates (by Sessionlab)

Who-What-Why-Where Prompt

If you want to look at your problem from different angles, the 5 W Questions (+ 1 H) are a simple but powerful prompt for quick alignment:

• Who has the problem?
• What is the impact?
• Why does it matter (business + customer)?
• Where does this show up in the experience?
• How might we solve it?

Use it in meetings, Slack threads, or anywhere alignment starts to fray.

Further Resources:

Problem Framing Playbook (by Atlassian)

5 W’s Problem Framing (by Design Ace)

Problem Framing Workshop (60-90 minutes)

If you know you’ll have to manage bigger discussions or if there is a lot of unclarity, you might want to plan for a longer workshop session. A workshop will give you the time to:

• Share existing knowledge

• Map assumptions
• Align on business and user needs
• Draft a shared problem statement

This is especially useful before diving into product ideas, sprint planning, or prioritization sessions.

Further resources and templates:

Problem framing template by Mural

Problem framing workshop by Designsprint Academy

More important than the tool is the habit: make space to reflect, ask questions, and challenge assumptions before jumping into solutions.

Kung-Fu Moves: How to Overcome Push-Backs

Even with the best intentions, you’ll find yourself in situations where a team or stakeholder is rushing into solutions or stuck in old patterns. These are your “in-the-moment” moments — where a well-placed question or reframing move can shift the conversation without derailing momentum.

Here are a few common situations — and how you can respond:

“We don’t have time. We just need to deliver something.”

Try this:

“Totally fair. But let’s spend 10 minutes clarifying what problem we’re solving — just so we’re not running full-speed in the wrong direction. Worst case? We lose 10 minutes. Best case? We save weeks.”

Bring in a quick Who-What-Why check here. Fast, low friction.

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“This is what my boss told me to do.”

Try this:

“Let’s take that idea and reverse-engineer the original goal. What’s the business outcome behind the request? Maybe we can frame it in a way that’s even more effective.”

Use a “problem tree” to show how this solution connects (or doesn’t) to the deeper issue.

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“We already know what the problem is.”

Try this:

“Great — let’s each write it down in one sentence and compare. If we’re all saying the same thing, we’re golden. If not, we might uncover something useful.”

This mini exercise reveals misalignment fast — no long meeting needed.

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“This is how we always did it.”

Try this:

“That makes sense. But let’s check if the context or user expectations have changed. Even small shifts can make old solutions less effective.”

Bring in quick data or a recent user quote. That often breaks the status quo mindset.

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These moments aren’t about being confrontational — they’re about planting a seed of doubt (in the best way). You’re giving your team permission to pause, question, and improve — even under pressure.

That’s what problem framing in action looks like.

Over to You: One Quick Step

Before you jump into your next project — pause.

Think about one recent problem your team tackled.

• What was the impact on the business?
• What was the impact on your customers?
• Did everyone agree on what the actual problem was?

Even this quick reflection can reveal where better framing would’ve helped — or where to sharpen things next time.

Key Takeaways

• Problem framing is not a UX thing — it’s a strategic decision-making skill.
• Teams often waste time solving the wrong thing because they jump into tactics too fast.
• Good framing connects customer needs, business goals, and behavior change.
• You don’t need a full workshop. A few simple prompts can create better alignment.
• In the moment, use mini “reframes” to slow down and refocus your team.

If you want help turning this into a regular habit in your org — reach out. I’d love to support your team in solving the right problems.

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Want to take it further? I can help you set up your own quick framing session or equip your team with tools to spot misaligned problems early. Let’s chat.