Issue diagram is an effective method for breaking down problems and formulating hypothesis

Key Components of Issue Diagram

• Issues: Questions which need to be answered or topics which need to be explored in order to solve a problem.
• Hypothesis: Speculative answers for issues that are phrased as questions and/or areas of exploration for issue phrased as topics.
• Key Questions: Questions that probe hypothesis and drive the primary research required to solve the problem.

Identifying Issues

Key to identifying Issues:

1. Develop a comprehensive list of all possible issues related to the problem
2. Reduce the comprehensive list by eliminating duplicates and combining overlapping issues
3. Using consensus building, get down to a “major issues list” (usually two to five issues)

Formulating the Hypothesis

Framing the Questions

• Recognizing the problem: It all starts with pinpointing the issue you want to address. This could be anything from deciding what product to launch to figuring out how to improve customer satisfaction.
• Formulating a hypothesis: Once you’ve identified the problem, you’ll need to develop potential explanations or solutions. These are your hypotheses, and they act as guiding principles for your analysis.
• Gathering data: With your hypothesis in hand, it’s time to gather relevant information. This might involve collecting facts, figures, and statistics related to the problem and your proposed solution.
• Analyzing the data: Once you have your data, you need to delve into it and make sense of it. This often involves meticulous examination, identifying patterns, and uncovering relationships within the data to gain deeper insights.
• Evaluating the results: After your analysis, it’s crucial to assess the findings and see how they align with your initial hypothesis. Do the results support your hypothesis, suggesting you should refine and strengthen it? Or do they contradict it, prompting you to go back to the drawing board and formulate a new hypothesis?
• Refining and iterating: Analytical thinking is an iterative process. You’ll likely go through multiple rounds of hypothesis testing, analysis, and refinement until you arrive at a satisfactory solution. Each iteration builds on the knowledge gained from the previous one, gradually honing in on the most effective approach.

Brainstorming – A method for Identifying Issues and Formulating Hypothesis

• Brainstorming is useful when there is a wide range of possible issues and solutions
• Brainstorming is not appropriate for testing an idea; it is used to generate ideas
• There are numerous brainstorming techniques, which include group brainstorming, individual brainstorming, and storyboarding
• Individual brainstorming is usually not recommended unless time is too tight, participants are rarely available, group is too large, etc.
• Brainstorming can be useful for Force Field Analysis – identifying all forces impacting the problem

Tips of Brainstorming

1. State the purpose and objective of the brainstorming session from the onset
2. Set ground rules for participants
3. Give everyone an opportunity to participate
4. Solicit all ideas and opinions – nothing is rejected until consensus building takes place
5. After exhausting all ideas, eliminate certain ideas, e.g. not relevant, duplicative, etc.
6. Finalize outcome of the brainstorming process through consensus: Highest Priority, Assigning Points, etc.