How to describe a problem so that everyone understands it

Solving problems is a common activity in every business. In some areas, such as

Quality, it receives special treatment with root cause identification methods and
corrective actions. However, we often do not give due attention to an important step
in the problem solving process: the formulation of an adequate description.

An adequate description will significantly clarify the problem, as well as identify its
severity, location and financial impact. It also serves as a great communication tool,
helping you gain the support of other people. When problems are adequately
described, people perceive and understand what you are trying to accomplish.

How to describe a problem?

The problem description should have a concise description of the facts that need to
be addressed. In addition, it must respond to the 5 Whys of the 5W2H
methodology: Who, Where, What, When and Why. Note that H (“how?”) is not
included. This is because this is the question that the investigative efforts will arrive
at from the root cause of the problem. After determining the facts associated with
the problem, the analysis and resolution of the problem can be carried out in less
time and with lower costs.

The difficulty in describing a problem is that people often assume that everyone else
knows what the problem is. Inevitably, this leads to a poorly crafted or even
incorrect description of a problem.

When it is assumed that the cause of the problem is already known, the result in
one of two possible versions of the problem description:

 In one case, the description of the problem is extremely weak in information and
details, for example: “Our department has received customer complaints.”
 At the other extreme, it may lead to a detailed, but completely incorrect
description of the problem, or one that already assumes a solution, for example:
“We need to train employees again because they are taking too long to deal
with app crashes, resulting in customer complaints about the slowness of our
department.”

As you can see, the two problem descriptions are inadequate to justify investing
valuable resources in solving the problem.

And in practice? Where do I start?

Starting from an outline is a great way. The outline can be represented as a problem
description matrix that includes tips for identifying the 5 Whys (see the table below).

The data needed to fill in the matrix can be gathered through targeted interviews,
historical data or preliminary analyses that can be done quickly and at low cost.

This matrix should then be used to write the detailed description of the problem:
“Our order processing department saw a 20% increase in average monthly
complaints over the last three months after implementing the new tool to manage
work orders for all the organizational departments.”
This is an objective description, with relevant data, that will certainly help the team
in the next steps to investigate the causes and define possible actions so that the
complaint rate decreases again.

More tips for describing a problem

To help you with this, have a look at the following summary of good practices for
describing a problem.

1. Write the problem description with the reader in mind

Keep in mind that you will probably have to convince management to provide
resources to solve the problem and recruit staff members to help you. You do not
want to spend your precious time explaining over and over what you are trying to
accomplish.

2. Keep the problem description concise and include, at least:

 A brief description of the problem;

 Where the problem is occurring;
 The length of time the problem has been occurring;
 The size or magnitude of the problem.

3. Be careful not to make the problem description too simple

A natural tendency is make a problem description too simplistic because you are
already familiar with it. Others need to understand the context and significance in
order to get their support for solving the problem.

4. Be careful with the solution

Do not include any suggestion or speculation about the cause of the problem or
what actions should be taken to solve the problem. Never try to solve the problem
or direct the solution in this step.

5. Facilitate interpretation

Remove information that may lead to any interpretive bias. Intuition is not welcome
in this step.
6. Include numbers whenever possible

Include some quantification of the magnitude of the problem to help readers arrive

at a better decision.

Closing

A problem management software is crucial to guide people while describing and

correcting a problem.

What is the problem? Number of

complaints related to
app crash increased
20%
Who is experiencing the Everyone who uses
problem? the sport tracking
app
Where is the problem Sport tracking app
occurring? development team
When did the problem 3 months ago
start?
Why is this problem Incompatibility with
occurring? the newest OS
update

This matrix should then be used to write the detailed description of the problem:
“Our sport-tracking app development team saw a 20% increase in average monthly
complaints from users over the last three months after the newest update of the OS
was implemented .”