This article is written by Alexis Palá, Research Associate at Y Lab, the public services innovation lab for Wales. This article also appears in Apolitical's problem framing microcourse.

Apolitical's problem framing microcourse is designed to help public servants identify and approach knotty problems in new and innovative ways. In this article, Alexis Palá outlines the basic principles involved in framing a problem.

Each frame is a new way to look at the issue and try to understand the need at its core.

A frame influences who is perceived as a stakeholder, what methods you select, who you exclude from the conversation, the questions you explore and test, and the questions you may have stopped asking.

To begin this journey, here are a few key principles to guide you:

Principle 1: Problem framing is an approach to innovating or trying to do things differently.

Your frame(s) should be new. If not, you’re using the same mode of thinking that hasn’t been successful in solving the problem so far.

When you start the problem framing process, you do so because there is an unresolved need or challenge that you are trying to address through a policy or a service. You have moved past the improvement space — which is working within the same frame — and acknowledge that things need to be done differently.

Principle 2: Be explicit about the history and context of your problem.

This involves exploring knowns, unknowns, and honestly recording how the problem has been approached in the past — be critical about what has and hasn’t worked.

This principle is what author and industrial designer Kees Dorst calls “the archeology” of your problem. What methods have been tried? What policies already exist and what are their outcomes? What’s the data telling you? This is unearthing and interacting with the assets, the “known” bits of your problem, and examining those before moving into uncertainty with “unknowns”.

Embracing complexity is about being humble about what you do and don’t know. It’s about being flexible, open to testing and continuous learning

You may want to start with a desk review, speaking with your colleagues, doing a few expert interviews (letting them know they are preliminary), either with academics or community leaders to get their perspective of the problem and identifying any resources they may have that could help you. Record any initial insights from those discussions and any ideas you would like to test or learn more about.

Principle 3: Respect and embrace complexity, don’t shy away from it.

Public problems are complex problems, making framing a continuous activity.

Fully embracing the complexity and dynamism of your problem space means understanding framing as a continuous process, not just a static activity. You should always be challenging and refining your service and policy frames beyond the discovery phase.

Engaging with complexity may feel uncomfortable, but you don’t need to push yourself to become an expert in complexity theory, nor does it mean using “it’s complex” as a cop-out. Embracing complexity is about being humble about what you do and don’t know. It’s about being flexible, open to testing and continuous learning. (You will engage more deeply with complexity in section two of this microcourse).

Principle 4: It’s a fundamentally collaborative process, you shouldn’t frame alone

To successfully frame and get to the heart of complex challenges, we need to engage a diversity of perspectives. This calls for learning as a team (internal collaboration) and the need to learn with others (external collaboration).

Going down the uncharted path can be scary, but if we are really serious about solving problems it’s often the only way

Depending on your problem, the stakeholders will shift, and how they should/could be involved will shift along with that. The best way to test your frame is to involve others in the process and test in real-time along the way. (In section three you will get a chance to explore this process in more detail).

Principle 5: Problem framing is an experimental, active process

Suspend judgement, test early, and don’t get attached to solutions/frames.

This is about being action-oriented, to dig into the doing so you can take steps forward. This is a process of trial and error and creating things that you are okay with abandoning and throwing away, for instance by using sacrificial concepts.

You can either start this process by focusing on your biggest assumptions or you can investigate how the problem has been approached in the past to reimagine new ways of doing things. Use new “how might we” questions as provisional frames to test. Then ask, who should you speak with and what tools might you use?

Principle 6: Invest and do the work upfront and focus on conditions

This doesn’t have to mean things take more time. Rather, it is about building confidence in your direction of travel and rigorously testing your key assumptions so they don’t come back to haunt you.

Complex systems and problems cannot be controlled. Be rigorous. The last thing any of us want is to end up in a news headline, or to further entrench inequities. Going down the uncharted path can be scary, but if we are really serious about solving problems it’s often the only way. I hope these six principles can make your journey a little less daunting. — Alexis Paláf

[Picture credit: Pexels]

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