Codesigning Problem Statements for School Leaders
The best way to arrive at a problem statement is by starting from zero, going into the process without assumptions and collaborating with students, parents, and educators to arrive at a shared challenge.
However, the reality is that schools aren't starting from zero. Most of the time, there are strategic plans and grant outcomes that have already arrived at some version of a problem statement, and there may not be much latitude to work outside those bounds.
In this scenario, it's still important to validate the problem and understand how that problem manifests for each stakeholder. The steps below will help you to create a problem statement, validate if it's resonant or not, and craft a shared problem statement with stakeholders.
Distill the problem into its most basic idea
Strategic plans are most often framed around "Goals," "Pillars," "Priorities," and "Actions." The basic problems that strategic plans seek to address can sometimes be overlooked or taken for granted. In the process of arriving at a problem statement, we're focused less on "what" the goals are and more focused on "why" are these the goals?
One goal of a strategic plan may be "to prepare our graduates to succeed in college, the workplace, and life."
One effective method of arriving at the most basic idea is by consulting Digital Promise's Challenge Map. In the example above, there are innumerable ways to prepare students to succeed in college, the workplace, and life. There are also innumerable challenges that are preventing that from happening in your school currently. From the Digital Promise Challenge Map, you can hone in on the primary challenge that's currently preventing you from achieving the goal laid out in your strategic plan.
By consulting a more exhaustive list of challenges, you may decide that the culturally responsive practices are the best way to prepare student to succeed in college, the workplace, and life.
Revise that into a problem statement
Once you've arrived at a general challenge, the aim is to now create a problem statement. A problem statement is a way for you to think deeply about a challenge, get hyper-specific on who is affected, think about what happens if the problem isn't addressed, and hypothesize a solution. Once you have a problem statement, the primary use case is as a communication tool. It serves as a way to succinctly communicate the nature of the challenge, in your estimation, and get quick actionable feedback from stakeholders.
There are a few good frames to create a problem statement, but this is the formula that we like to use:
Problem Statement Formula
Who + What + Why + Impact + Hypothesis + Plan
Who?
The "who?" describes the group that is impacted by the problem. The key here is to be specific as possible. Is it all students that are impacted or is it only a subset? If there are multiple groups that are affected, you can create multiple problem statements for each group.
What?
This is the empathy section. Try to understand how the group that you've identified experiences the problem.
Why?
Next, we'll try to understand why this problem exists by doing a root cause analysis. Try to identify the immediate cause of the problem without jumping ahead. The best advice for this section is to follow the chain of cause and effect without thinking through how you'll solve the problem or by stopping at the point where the problem is outside the locus of your control.
Be sure to include any quantitative or qualitative evidence here.
Impact
The impact section is focused on what happens if nothing is done to address this problem. There will be multiple impacts but try to narrow it down to the one you're most concerned about.
Be sure to include any quantitative or qualitative evidence here.
Hypothesis
Your hypothesis is what you believe needs to happen in order to solve the problem.
Plan
This section is for your proposed solution. Concretely, what you’ll do to solve the problem.
Example
(Who?) K-8 Students at Wrigleyville Schools (What) are experiencing an increase in emotional trauma and anxiety (Why?) due to instability resulting from inequities that were intensified during the pandemic. (Evidence) We have observed this through an increase in the number of student interventions measured between 2019 and 2022. (Impact?) If this problem continues, we expect to see a decline graduation rates and college acceptance. (Evidence) We know this because, we have observed a direct correlation between graduation rates and student interventions. (Hypothesis) Therefore, we need to take a proactive approach in identifying and dealing with behaviors that may result in student interventions. (Plan) To test our hypothesis, we’re partnering with an edtech provider that specializes in tracking student behaviors and moods across classrooms and throughout the school day.
Conduct interviews / focus groups / and surveys
Unfortunately, empathy will only take you so far in assessing a challenge. The best way to understand how someone is experiencing a problem is by asking them.
In an ideal scenario, this type of qualitative research should look like a funnel or inverse pyramid: starting with a broad survey that encompasses as many stakeholders as possible, then using that information to craft questions for focus groups, and finally, conducting semi-structured, one-on-one interviews to get a better sense of how these problems manifest on an individual level.
We don't always have time or resources to conduct this qualitative research under ideal circumstances, though. There isn't necessarily one of these methods that we'd recommend above the others. Each has their limitations and advantages.
The goal, however, with surveys, focus groups, and interviews, is to provide space for people to talk and to really hear what they have to say about their experience. The questions in all of these methods can broadly center around the problem that you've chosen to address provide a way for stakeholders to provide their insights and experiences.
How to Prepare for Semi-Structured Interviews
Synthesize Data
Once you've collected data from interviews, focus groups, and surveys, it's time to interpret the data. This is probably the most critical part of the process and the part where bias can easily and unintentionally seep in.
During the previous step it's important to remain uninterested in validating or invalidating your problem statement. You want to remain completely open to where a conversation or interview may lead and, if instead, you're leading the conversation to a place you want to arrive, that data and insights that you collect won't be complete.
However, in this step, you will be focused on determining how wrong your problem statement is (because a problem statement crafted in isolation won't ever be fully accurate).
Because confirmation bias is such a risk at this stage, it's advisable to bring in a third-party to evaluate and synthesize the data that you've collected. If possible it's good to have a third-party participate in focus groups and interviews by observing behaviors and taking notes.
Also, even though data-collection and synthesis are discrete steps, they will often be performed subsequently. It's always good to draft the themes, areas of conflict, and relevant quotes immediately after focus groups and interviews, while the information is still fresh. Then, that data can be revisited and revised at the end of the process.
Create a shared problem statement
Finally, once you've synthesized the data and used that to rethink your problem statement, you can convene a working group, comprised of all relevant stakeholders, to craft a new problem statement.
In order to recruit participants for the working group, it's advisable to ask participants directly about their willingness to join a working group during or at the end of your surveys, focus groups, and interviews.
These working groups don't necessarily need to be extended commitments, but it's important that the working group has access to (anonymized) raw and synthesized data that they can use to codesign a problem statement that is representative of the larger stakeholder population.
During this working group, you will work through the process outlined above in step 2, to create a shared problem statement.
