Problem Statements That Lead to Better Project Outcomes

If a problem statement includes an action, your solution quality already suffers. Get the problem right, or everything that follows will be brilliant, but not valuable.

The importance of problem statements as basic groundwork can’t be overstated. Writing a problem statement properly creates focus for an entire team. As a consequence, better decisions can be made, and everyone understands what needs to be solved before anyone starts working on it.

A great problem statement is the foundation for effective solutions and successful project outcomes, as it clarifies objectives and prevents teams from jumping to solutions prematurely.

Exhibit 1: A template for writing problem statements

Most statements fail because they’re too vague or solution-focused: “We need a new app” isn’t a problem statement. Instead, “Customer satisfaction has dropped 23% in three months due to slow response time” is. A great problem statement helps teams develop targeted, effective solutions by providing clarity and focus on the core issues.

The process of writing a problem statement forces a thorough review of your assumptions. It requires observing behaviors. It demands that you identify the pressing issue as well as the symptoms.

The 7 key components of an effective problem statement

Every effective problem statement contains specific elements that transform vague concerns into actionable focus areas: defining the current state, highlighting negative consequences, and pointing desired state.

Following a structure grounded in clarity, logic, and impact avoids jumping to solutions too early.

• Start with the current state. Describe what’s happening currently with as much detail as possible. Use concrete data and feedback for proof: “Employee turnover increased 40% in Q2.” beats “People seem unhappy.”.

• Identify who experiences this problem. Name the specific groups affected. The target audience might be customers, employees, or specific departments. Multiple stakeholders often face different pain points from the same issue. For example, low employee engagement can indicate broader issues with workplace culture and morale, and survey results on employee engagement can help pinpoint which teams or departments are most affected.

• Define the problem’s scope. Make the gap between current state and desired state measurable: “Response time averages 48 hours; customers expect 4 hours.”. This will guide clear objectives.

• Include background information. Explain why the issue occurs. Maybe customer feedback revealed an unmet need. Perhaps interviewing stakeholders uncovered process bottlenecks. This context helps others understand the problem’s importance.

• Describe negative consequences. Examine what might happen if the problem remains unsolved. What happens in three or six months? This creates urgency without forcing a proposed approach.

• Root cause analysis. Don’t confuse symptoms with sources. High employee turnover might stem from poor onboarding and not from compensation analysis.

• Define the desired state clearly. Establish what success looks like that anyone can identify when you’ve solved the problem.

To not decrease the effectiveness of a problem statement, teams need to avoid including potential solutions or initial assumptions about fixes. The distinction between the statement and proposed solutions keeps the team open to creative solutions they might otherwise miss. Thus, the problem statement’s job is solely to define the problem. And nothing else.

Effective problem statement writing to drive solutions

Writing effective problem statements is the first step toward meaningful project outcomes and is crucial for the success of projects. A well-crafted problem statement serves as a solid foundation for any team, aligning stakeholders around a specific problem before jumping to solutions.

Project managers often face a common pitfall: rushing to proposed solutions without fully understanding the issue. This approach wastes resources and leads to ineffective solutions that don’t address root causes.

Therefore, an effective problem statement (Exhibit 1) does three things:

1. It defines the current state clearly.

2. It identifies stakeholders impacted by the issue.

3. And it explains why the problem exists without prescribing an obvious solution.

A well-defined problem statement also helps track and guide the project's progress toward its objectives, ensuring the team remains focused and aligned throughout the project's lifecycle.

Common pitfalls and challenges to avoid in writing

Most problem statements already fail before teams start writing them, as critical validation steps are skipped. The biggest mistake is describing a proposed solution instead of the actual problem.

"We need new features for our app" isn't a problem statement, it's a proposed approach. The real problem might be that new customers abandon onboarding at a 60% rate.

Apart from misleading descriptions, teams often start writing without gathering enough background information. But this is one of the most profound mistakes causing the statement's failure. A thorough review of data, customer feedback, and stakeholder input always needs to be conducted early throughout the process. But there are even more pitfalls (Exhibit 2) that can be experienced.

Exhibit 2: Pitfalls and challenges in drafting a problem statement

From our experience, failing to describe negative consequences removes urgency. Decision makers need to understand what happens if this problem remains unsolved. Without consequences, a problem statement competes poorly for resources against other priorities.

To avoid the mentioned pitfalls, it is necessary to invest more time up front. Concerns about the validation of the understanding and tests regarding the assumptions need to be eliminated first. Afterwards, it can be ensured that a problem statement actually describes a problem worth solving.

The structured process to write a problem statement

When the methodology is clear, the next question becomes: when to start writing a problem statement? The short answer is: once the groundwork is completed. Many teams hesitate, waiting for perfect information or absolute certainty about the problem. This perfectionism often delays action unnecessarily.

To start writing an effective problem statement, a profound understanding is necessary. Whether a project manager wants to kick off a new initiative or an innovation leader is exploring new market opportunities, clarity in the early stages always saves time.

Thus, starting doesn't mean rushing. It means having enough validated data, stakeholder input, and root cause understanding to draft a meaningful statement.

Writing a problem statement follows a structured process that ensures thorough understanding before starting the actual document. Out on our experience, the following steps are helpful during problem statement development:

1. Gather data from multiple sources. Review customer feedback, performance metrics, and incident reports. Numbers ground your statement in reality and prevent opinion-based problem definitions.

2. Conduct interviews with key stakeholders across an organization. Front-line employees see pain points executives might miss. Customers describe frustrations that your team assumes away. This research project phase reveals the specific problem’s true scope.

3. Document the current state without judgment. What’s happening? When does the issue occur? Who’s affected? Treat this rather like investigative journalism and not creative writing.

4. Identify root causes through systematic analysis. Ask “why” five times. Challenge initial assumptions. The obvious solution often only addresses symptoms instead of the true sources (Exhibit 3).

   
   
   

Exhibit 3: The 5 whys template to move from symptoms to root causes

1. Organize key components. Separate facts from interpretations. Distinguish between what you know and what you suspect.

2. Draft the statement in plain language. Write for clarity as the team needs to understand the problem quickly.

3. Share the draft with stakeholders. Ask for feedback as the reactions tell whether the real issue is captured or only its perception. Is the input helpful? Or are some concerns creating a diluted statement?

4. Validate the final version against project goals. Does the problem statement support the organization’s objective? Will solving this issue deliver meaningful impact?

5. Get formal approval from decision makers. Their sign-off commits resources to the solving effort.

Depending on the complexity of the problem, the entire process will take more or less time. But be careful not to rush here, as time invested upfront prevents wasted months later. And teams also need to aim for completing all the steps, as failures can occur as well: drafting assumptions without validation, rushing to write without organizing findings, or failing to get formal approval before proceeding.

Use these steps as a guide to develop your own problem statement tailored to your specific needs and context.

How to gather data and context before writing the statement

Gathering comprehensive data transforms assumptions into facts and ensures that a problem statement reflects reality and not its perception. This research phase determines whether the right problem is solved or not, and therefore, different data sources and types must be considered.

Quantitative data

Start by reviewing existing documentation, like performance reports, customer surveys, support tickets, or financial data. These might already reveal patterns needed to write a specific, measurable problem statement.

Together with qualitative evidence, more power can be added as numbers provide evidence, but stories provide the context for it.

Time- and location-based patterns

Time-based patterns indicate operational causes, and location-based patterns suggest process or resource problems. Analyze where and when issues occur most frequently to prevent overgeneralization. Whereas a timely correlation with other events often points toward root causes worth investigating further.

Key stakeholders across organizational levels

Executives see strategic impacts. Managers understand operational challenges. Front-line employees experience daily pain points. Each perspective adds critical context that shapes your understanding.

External sources

External perspectives often reveal unmet needs your team has overlooked. Customer feedback, for example, offers unfiltered insight into how problems affect your market.

Competitive intelligence

This background information prevents reinventing wheels and identifies proven approaches worth considering.

Project’s progress on related initiatives

If previous attempts to solve this problem failed, understanding why informs your current effort. Tracking the project's progress on related initiatives helps evaluate advancement and realignment efforts, ensuring lessons learned are applied to future solutions. Past failures aren’t wasted as they’re data about what doesn’t work.

In a second step, the findings must be organized before the writing process can start. Categorizing the data by theme, stakeholder group, or process area helps to reveal connections (Exhibit 4).

Exhibit 4: A 360° radar view synthesizing and categorizing all research insights

Thus, as a last step, only validated data can be incorporated into a statement. Outdated metrics or unverified claims undermine credibility when one stakeholder questions a problem statement, whereas solid data defends conclusions.

The investment in gathering context pays dividends throughout problem solving: Teams trust problem statements backed by research, as well as decision makers allocate resources more readily when data justifies the need.

How to validate a problem statement before publishing the call 

Validating a problem statement before publication prevents wasted efforts and ensures that only problems with the investment are solved. This final checkpoint catches errors that might undermine the entire investment. Along the verification process, several checkpoints (Exhibit 5) need to be reached:

Exhibit 5: A checklist for the validation of a problem statement 

What can also be truly helpful for the statement's validation is the feedback from unfamiliar persons. Letting them read and explain how they would understand the problem reveals gaps, confusions, or unintended implications that might still be addressed:

• Are all impacted stakeholders correctly identified?
• Are the key affected groups missed?
• Are all success criteria measurable and realistic?
• Can it be tracked whether solutions achieve the desired state?

As a last step, a formal sign-off from decision makers is necessary before a problem statement can be published. Their approval confirms organizational commitment to solving this problem and allocating necessary resources.

The validation process takes a few hours. But it is similar to all previous steps in the development process: the more time invested here, the less time you might waste in misdirected efforts. A problem statement that passes these checks will attract better responses and lead to more effective solutions than one published without verification.

See it in action: Examples for good problem statements

Seeing effective problem statements in action clarifies abstract principles and provides templates that can be adapted for any other challenge. An example problem statement helps illustrate the process of clearly defining organizational issues and future goals, making it easier to understand how to construct comprehensive and effective statements.

Innovation campaigns and R&D initiatives require problem statements that inspire creative solutions while maintaining sufficient structure for evaluation. Here are some examples across different contexts:

Process Innovation Example

"Our claims processing department handles 15,000 insurance claims monthly, with 40% requiring manual review due to incomplete documentation. Average processing time is 12 days, while industry leaders complete similar claims in 6 days.

Analysis shows that 70% of incomplete claims lack the same 5 pieces of information, yet our submission interface doesn't dynamically request missing data. We're exploring solutions that reduce manual review requirements, accelerate processing, and improve first-submission completeness without adding customer friction."

Product Development Example

"Our industrial IoT sensors operate effectively in controlled environments but fail at rates 3x higher than specifications when deployed in high-vibration settings (manufacturing, transportation, construction). These failures cost customers an average of $15K per incident in downtime and emergency replacements.

Current sensor housing meets IP67 standards, but vibration testing reveals circuit board microfractures after 500 hours of operation at typical industrial vibration levels. We seek R&D partners to develop solutions extending operational life to 5,000+ hours in high-vibration environments while maintaining current size, power consumption, and cost parameters."

Problem vs. idea statement

To make it even clearer, problem and idea statements can be put into contrast (Exhibit 6):

Exhibit 6: A comparison of problem and idea statements 

Each example demonstrates how to frame innovation challenges: specific current state, quantified impact, attempted solutions, constraints, and desired outcomes. These statements attract relevant partners by providing enough detail for assessment while remaining open to diverse solution approaches.

For your own innovation campaigns, all patterns can be adapted to your own contexts: focus on the problem and its impact, acknowledge what has been tried, and invite creative solutions within realistic parameters.

In which business situations do problem statements matter most

Writing effective problem statements is valuable if the problem scales. A well-written statement should lead to alignment, decision, and ultimately, impact. For project managers and innovation leads, the challenge is to take the theory - key components, stakeholder input, root cause framing - and turn it into an actionable call for creative solutions.

The transition from planning to implementation requires structure. But it also demands a clear connection between the problem statement and the project's progress over time. Without a system in place, even the best writing can get lost in the noise.

Framing a call for proposal using problem-solving logic

Framing a call for proposal usually starts with a crystal-clear problem statement that guides potential solutions without prescribing them. This approach (Exhibit 7) attracts creative solutions from diverse sources.

Exhibit 7: Framing a call for proposal using problem solving logic 

A well-framed call for proposals attracts better responses because it demonstrates clear thinking about a problem. It respects respondents' time by providing essential information upfront. But most importantly, it increases the likelihood that proposed solutions will actually solve the problem.

But teams also need to be careful: dictating the proposed approach might limit creativity. Therefore, it is important to truly frame a problem and let experts propose solutions.

Matching the problem statement to the proposal evaluation criteria

A problem statement and its evaluation criteria must align perfectly, or selected solutions won't solve the actual problem. The connection ensures consistency throughout the decision-making process.

Therefore, key objectives need to be extracted from a problem statement first. If the problem is that "customer satisfaction dropped 30% due to 48-hour response time", the evaluation criteria should prioritize response speed and customer experience improvements over unrelated capabilities.

Further, each component of an effective problem statement should map to a specific evaluation criterion. And identified root causes then become its evaluation factors.

• Weight criteria according to problem severity: The most pressing issue gets the highest weight.

• Make criteria measurable wherever possible: The criteria shall be assessed objectively in any proposed solution.

• Include both problem-solving effectiveness and implementation feasibility: A perfect solution requires a balance of ambition with practical constraints.

• Consider stakeholders impacted: The evaluation should weigh solutions that address the broadest group or the most severely affected.

• Test criteria against desired state: The proposal scoring highest in the criteria should align defined outcomes.

• Document how the criteria connect with the problem statement: The transparency helps proposal evaluators to stay focused and explain decisions.

To enhance engagement, both the problem statement and the evaluation criteria need to be shared. This transparency helps respondents to see how their work will be judged and will, in return, deliver more relevant proposed solutions as the clarity reduces time wasted on misaligned proposals.

On a last note, all criteria must be reviewed before finalizing them: Do they inadvertently favor certain approaches? Do they exclude creative solutions that might work better than you anticipated? Adjust to remain open while maintaining focus.

Connecting problem statements to portfolios, roadmaps, and decisions

Problem statements shouldn't exist in isolation. Connecting them to your strategic portfolios, technology roadmaps, and decision frameworks ensures you solve problems that advance organizational objectives rather than interesting challenges that don't matter.

• Strategic portfolio alignment. Portfolio management tools should track problem statements alongside projects and initiatives. This visibility helps leadership understand both what an organization is building and trying to solve. It contextualizes resource requests within strategic needs rather than presenting them as isolated demands.

• Technology roadmap integration. Roadmap dependencies become visible when problem statements connect to technical capabilities. If solving Problem A requires capabilities that are being developed for Problem B, sequencing becomes obvious. This coordination prevents parallel efforts and identifies opportunities for shared solutions that address multiple problems simultaneously.

• Decision framework connection. The problem's characteristics - urgency, impact, affected stakeholders, resource requirements - should directly inform whether and when it can be invested in solutions. Problems defined clearly enable better prioritization when multiple opportunities compete for the same resources.

• Performance tracking. Performance metrics from problem statements should flow into portfolio dashboards. If a problem was "reduce customer churn by 15%," the portfolio should track progress toward that outcome and not just project completion percentages.

• Organizational learning. Integration between problem statements, portfolios, roadmaps, and decisions transforms innovation from a series of disconnected projects into a coherent strategy for solving meaningful challenges. Each element reinforces the others, creating a system where clearly defined problems drive focused solutions that advance strategic objectives.

Integration between problem statements, portfolios, roadmaps, and decisions transforms innovation from a series of disconnected projects into a coherent strategy for solving meaningful challenges. Each element reinforces the others, creating a system where clearly defined problems drive focused solutions that advance strategic objectives.

Use ITONICS to develop the best solutions for the right problem statements

ITONICS provides purpose-built capabilities to help develop concrete problem statements and connect them with ideas (Exhibit 8). 

Exhibit 8: AI writing assistant, helping formulate precise problem statements

The platform guides you through problem statement creation using customizable templates that ensure consistency across your organization. Teams develop their own problem statements using proven structures, reducing variance and improving quality without sacrificing flexibility for different problem types.

• Create a process that people follow. With customizing workflows, forms, and templates that feel natural and not like extra work.

• Eliminate information silos. Dispersed teams and disconnected data often result in missed opportunities and duplicated results.

ITONICS transforms problem statement development from a document creation task into a strategic innovation process. The platform handles structure and workflow while you focus on deeply understanding and accurately articulating the problems worth solving.

FAQs on effective problem statements