How Problem Statements Get Better
Let’s say you’ve done your desk scan. You’ve learned what programs exist, who the key players are, and where the gaps might be. You’re ready to dive into fieldwork and start talking to people. Right?
Here’s where some founders skip ahead too quickly. They gather great insights from interviews and observations. They create personas and journey maps. They have notebooks full of quotes and pain points. And then they try to write a problem statement in one quick pass.
But here’s where they hit a wall. It comes out vague: “Seniors need better access to resources.” Or it’s actually a solution in disguise: “Seniors need a mobile app to connect them with volunteers.”
It’s a familiar story.
The Problem with Problem Statements
The issue isn’t that people don’t try to define problems—it’s that they try too early, before they really understand the situation, before they’ve sat with the complexity. The result? Statements that are either too vague to be useful or that smuggle in a solution they’ve already decided on.
Without that grounding, you end up solving surface issues rather than deeper needs.
Here’s an example. A campus service club spent weeks talking to people in their surrounding community about food insecurity. Their first problem statement: “Low-income community members need better access to affordable food.”
True? Yes. Useful? Not really.
What does “access” mean? Is it cost? Location? Awareness? Transportation? And who exactly are these “community members”? Where are the current support systems actually failing?
The statement was so broad it could justify almost anything: a food pantry expansion, a meal voucher donation program, a community fridge, a grocery delivery service. Without a sharper understanding of the underlying cause, they risked building something nobody needed.
Problem Statements Evolve
Here’s what took me too long to learn: good problem statements aren’t written once.
They’re refined over time.
This is natural. Our understanding of anything deepens the more we study it, the more we work with it, and the more we test it in real situations.
That service club? After more focused conversations, they discovered something specific: lower-paid university staff, including food service workers, groundskeepers, and housekeepers, were among the food insecure. They knew about the community food bank but couldn’t access it. The real issue was that the food bank operated during their work shifts (9am–5pm weekdays), and taking time off meant lost wages they couldn’t afford. Using resources visibly near their workplace also created stigma they wanted to avoid.
The service club revised their problem statement: “Hourly university staff members cannot access existing food assistance without sacrificing wages or workplace dignity, creating a gap between available resources and the people who need them.”
Now that’s something you can design for.
Understanding the Define Phase
The Define phase isn’t a single step. It’s a process of progressive refinement.
Yes, design thinking is iterative. But in practice, most people treat it as linear. They do good work with the empathy phase, write a problem statement, and move on. That’s not enough. You’ll refine your problem definition through five stages, and then revisit it again and again as your understanding deepens.
One way to visualize this refinement is as a progression:
Here’s what that progression looks like in practice:
Think of these not as discrete steps, but as a spectrum of understanding. Each stage helps you see the problem more clearly:
1. Organize the data (personas, journey maps, observations)
2. Reframe the problem (early problem statements)
3. Ask “How Might We” questions (opening up possibilities)
4. Develop a needs statement (focused, evidence-based understanding)
5. Synthesize a point of view (POV) (a clear, human-centered framing of the need)
They blend into each other, each one sharpening your focus and deepening your insight.
What Comes Next
In the posts that follow, we’ll look more closely at each of these five stages.
Each post will:
• Focus on one key idea
• Include a concrete example
• Provide a simple tool you can use
We’ll also connect this work back to personas, journey maps, and empathy maps, since those are the foundation for understanding.
Consider this
The Define stage is not something you complete once and move past.
It’s a process of continual refinement.
As your understanding deepens, your definition of the problem should evolve with it.
The goal isn’t to write a perfect statement on your first try.
The goal is to find the right place to intervene. Next up: Stage 1—Organizing Your Data, where we’ll look at how to make sense of all those interview notes, observations, and insights you’ve gathered.
- Photo by Ann H on Pexels