Using How Might We Questions
Your team has done the listening. You have organized what you learned from your empathy research. You have reframed that learning into a stronger problem statement.
Now everyone looks around, and someone asks, “Okay, so what do we do with this?”
This is the moment for How Might We questions.
Where You Are in the Define Process
You are building a social enterprise, and you are now in the Define phase of design thinking. In the Empathy phase, you listened to people, gathered stories, and looked closely at their experiences. In the Define phase, you organized that learning and turned it into a clearer problem statement.
Now you are ready for opening that focused problem statement into possible directions for action.
A problem statement gives you focus. How Might We questions open that focus into possibility.
Maria: Watch What Happens to Her Problem Statement
Let’s return to Maria, whose case we have been working with in this series of posts.
Maria is a single working parent who wants to get healthy food for her family after work, but affordable fresh groceries are hard to find near her home during the hours she needs them.
That is the problem statement. Now see what happens when we turn that statement into a question:
How might we help working parents like Maria get affordable fresh groceries near home after work?
When we take the problem statement and turn it into a How Might We question, it opens up several possibilities for effective action.
And here are two more ways we could open that same problem statement:
- How might we reduce the evening time pressure that pushes families toward fast food?
- How might we make healthy meals easier to access during the hours families actually need them?
All three questions come from the same problem statement. But each one opens a somewhat different direction for action. None of them locks the team into only one answer.
What How Might We Questions Are
How Might We questions take a clear problem statement and turn it into a question that gives us room to explore different ways to help.
They are:
- open-ended
- grounded in the problem you defined
- designed to help you think creatively without jumping too quickly to a single solution
What They Do, and Do Not Do
How Might We questions help teams, and individuals too, think in multiple directions while keeping attention on the community partners and the barriers those partners face.
But they do not solve the problem by themselves. They do not replace ideation. And they should not name one specific solution too early.
They are a bridge between defining the problem and generating ideas.
What Makes a Strong How Might We Question
A strong How Might We question is grounded in the problem statement and the evidence behind it. It is open enough to allow multiple possible answers, but focused enough to guide useful idea generation.
Here is a quick test:
Could this question lead to several different ideas, and not just one obvious answer?
If yes, you are probably on the right track.
Three Common Mistakes
One common mistake is making the question too broad. For example:
How might we improve food access for everyone?
That is too big and too general. It does not stay close enough to the real people in the community, the real barrier, or the actual context.
A second mistake is making the question too narrow.
How might we help Maria find a grocery store open after 6pm?
This is too narrow because it assumes the solution is about store hours, not about the underlying need for accessible healthy food.
The third mistake is embedding a specific solution into the question.
How might we build an app that shows grocery coupons?
This sounds like a question, but it is really a solution disguised as a question. It has already decided on the tool, an app, and the mechanism, coupons.
A good fix is simple. If the question is too broad, narrow it to the actual user and situation. If it is too narrow, open it back up so it focuses on the need or barrier, not on a specific assumption about what will solve it. If it embeds a solution, step back and ask yourself what need you are really trying to meet. When you find yourself naming a specific thing you could almost put in a box, the question may be slipping too quickly into solution mode.
Try This Now
Take your own problem statement and try this:
- Write the statement clearly.
- Underline the community partner and the barrier.
- Draft three How Might We questions from that statement.
- Check whether each one is open, focused, and grounded.
- Keep the best one or two for ideation.
A Note About Root Causes
Sometimes writing How Might We questions helps you notice that you may be describing a symptom rather than a deeper barrier.
If you notice this happening, don’t worry. It means your thinking is getting sharper. That is worth paying attention to. We will come back to root cause analysis and how to dig deeper in a future post.
Why This Matters
Formulating How Might We questions is a process that keeps teams from building the wrong thing.
A strong problem statement helps you name the challenge clearly. Strong How Might We questions help you consider real possibilities.
This step matters because it helps you move from clarity to creative action without jumping too quickly to an answer.
In the next post, we will look at the Needs Statement, the next step in this progression.
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