How to run a mini Problem Framing Workshop
A simple 2-hour workshop designed to help key-stakeholders discover business opportunities and make rapid decisions.
Read moreProblem Framing Training
A 1-day hands-on course that teaches your team how to define the problems that matter, discover opportunities for innovation, and safeguard sprint success.
Loved by the world's top companies including Google, SAP, Nike, Roche, RGA
Why Problem Framing?
Don’t jump before you know where you want to land.
Knowing where your biggest business opportunity is, and where to focus your innovation efforts is key to bringing possible futures to life.
We'll help your team understand and visualize their entire ecosystem to spot the areas of opportunity.
Stop endless debates, biased opinions and clash of egos.
To make better decisions you must first acknowledge and assess both your innovation capabilities and liabilities by seeking different perspectives.
We'll set the stage for your team to define a common ground by sharing different points of view, listening to the customer and looking at research data and facts.
Expected Training Results
- How to identify and capture stakeholders perspectives
- How to make sense of customers needs, perceptions and expectations
- How to frame business problems into actionable design challenges
- How to gain the confidence of tackling a problem worth solving
Training Program Overview
Problem Framing is about a shared understanding of the problem, team alignment, and defining a strategy for the future.
Regardless of your context, this process will help you and your key-stakeholders make better decisions faster and define the best playground for innovation.
During the problem framing course, you will experience hands-on all phases of the process, and see how this framework works in practice through five real-world case studies.
Live online module
Digital collaboration tool (Mural or Miro)
Up to 12 participants
1-hour onboarding session 6-hour training session
In-person module
Up to 24 participants
1-day training
Who is Problem Framing for?
Business Teams
who want to make the right decisions from the start.
Agile Coaches & Innovation Managers
who want to introduce new ways of working.
UX Designers and Product Managers
who need to prioritize and humanize critical business questions.
Awesome time attending the Problem Framing Workshop at Google today. Great insight into how to increase stakeholder visibility into the biases that draw focus onto solutions instead of true problems. Shared understanding of the issue(s) at hand really enable teams to focus where it is most needed. Thank you!
The Problem Framing Training by DSA provided a very valuable new framework alongside a lot of helpful techniques and resources that I could take away and use for my next workshop. The communication and facilitation were flawless. The best thing, however, was that John, who facilitated the training, could really speak from years of experience and answer any question I or fellow students had. Would definitely recommend it!
Both the problem framing and sprint have been done under excellent moderation. Strict on time when required, inspirational when possible, demanding and ambitious when needed!
Want more details? Or a customized training program?
Discuss with our expert facilitators how Problem Framing could fit in your organization.
Problem Framing FAQs
What is Problem Framing?
Problem Framing is a design thinking method used to understand, define and prioritize complex business problems.
We have developed this framework as a preliminary step in the process of running a Design Sprints to ensure effective outcomes and make the investment in a Design Sprint worthwhile.
What happens in a Problem Framing workshop?
At its core, Problem Framing is a strategy workshop that involves a team of decision-makers, typically executive level with a direct interest in the project.
By using different frames, key decision-makers share their understanding of the problem and the business context, state their assumptions. decide on success metrics, and align around a common point of view.
Through a sequence of interactive activities, the decision-making team:
✓ Contextualizes the business problem
✓ Understands the customer perspective
✓ Identifies different business opportunities
✓ Decides and prioritizes the business question worth answering
In a nutshell, we are looking at every opportunity from two perspectives, business and customer: value to the business while making sure it maps to real customer needs.
When do I need Problem Framing?
We usually preface Design Sprints with Problem Framing.
Design Sprints are an amazing problem-solving framework, but they will not tell you if you are tackling the right problem in the first place. To ensure you're solving a problem worth the investment and de-risk your sprints or projects, Problem Framing is the best approach.
Do I need Problem Framing before each sprint?
Problem Framing is about problem definition while Design Sprints are about problem-solving.
If you already have a clearly defined Problem Statement and buy-in from your decision-makers, then a Problem Framing might not be needed.
But it is also important to know that within one Problem Framing workshop, your key-stakeholders can generate multiple Problem Statements thus multiple Design Sprints. Your team might end up with a backlog of Design Sprints.
What results should I expect to see at the end of a Problem Framing workshop?
✓ Decision-makers alignment on the problem definition
✓ Identified gaps in their knowledge (assumptions vs facts)
✓ A backlog of Design Sprints
✓ Decision-makers support and commitment
✓ A well defined Design Sprint challenge
Is Problem Framing used just in the context of Design Sprints?
No, Problem Framing can be used in any instance when your stakeholders need to make decisions, need to align with each other or there is no clarity around which problems or initiatives to pursue or prioritize.
Read more about Problem Framing on our blog
Why Problem Framing before a Design Sprint?
Problem definition and problem-solving as two very distinct and equally necessary activities. The Design Sprint is an excellent tool for problem-solving, but it is not effective if you are not solving the right problem.
Read more
What is Problem Framing?
Everything you need to know about Problem Framing and when to run (or not) a Problem Framing workshop with key decision-makers.
Read more
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