How the UK’s largest News Publisher uses Problem Framing to navigate complex problems

‍London, 2022

In the fast-evolving world of news publishing, clarity isn’t optional—it’s survival. In 2022, Reach partnered with Design Sprint Academy to equip its teams with a skillset that would help them align faster, reduce waste, and make smarter product decisions in a complex and rapidly changing environment.

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The Context

Reach is the UK’s largest commercial publisher—home to brands like the Daily Mirror, Manchester Evening News, and Birmingham Live. They operate across national and regional news, managing multiple platforms, products, and audiences with vastly different needs.

Their teams work in high-speed cycles, often juggling commercial pressure, editorial integrity, and evolving user behavior—all while staying ahead of the curve on digital transformation.

What they needed wasn’t another framework.

They needed a way to get alignment quickly—on what matters and what doesn’t.

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The Challenge

Product and design teams at Reach found themselves facing the classic modern problem:

• Too many inputs
• Vague problem definitions
• Stakeholders pushing in different directions
• A bias toward jumping straight into solutions without shared understanding
  

Sound familiar?

They weren’t struggling due to lack of effort.

They were struggling with focus.

That’s why they brought in Design Sprint Academy—to run a focused Problem Framing training, customized for their environment and teams.

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The Training

We delivered a full-day Problem Framing training for a cross-functional group of Reach’s product, UX, and delivery leads. The objective: teach them how to slow down—just enough—to align on the right problem, before accelerating into delivery.

Here’s what we covered:

• ‍Mapping the context: Who’s affected? What’s unclear? What’s already been assumed?‍
• Surfacing assumptions: Making the invisible visible, to reduce blind spots.‍
• Turning fuzzy challenges into sharp problem statements: So teams stop spinning and start focusing.‍
• Facilitating clarity: How to guide stakeholders toward aligned decisions—without endless debate.
  

This wasn’t theory. Participants worked on real product or process challenges they were dealing with that week—making the learning instantly relevant.

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The Impact

By the end of the day, Reach teams had more than a framework—they had a shift in mindset.

They walked away with:

• A repeatable process to use in discovery, research, or strategy workshops
• Greater confidence in saying “not yet” to solutions that weren’t grounded
• A way to quickly bring stakeholders into focus without days of discussion
• Shared language across product, design, and deliveryProblem Framing didn’t add friction.
  

It added clarity.

And clarity sped things up.

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Want to give your teams a way to cut through the noise and align faster?

Let’s talk about how Problem Framing can become your team’s strategic advantage.