What is the problem we are trying to solve?

I’m a big fan of design thinking because innovation is at the heart of this approach. It goes through stages of empathizing with your stakeholders, defining your problem, ideate, prototype and test.

I often ask these questions in projects — why are we building a product? Who for? How are we going about it?

The first question in particular “why are we building a product” is the one I want to focus on now.

There’s a link here between that question and define your problem in design thinking. The reason why we are building something is because there is a problem that needs solving. If there is no clear answer or different answers, then you have a problem here. It will introduce a huge risk of misunderstandings and building the wrong thing.

For the products you’re currently building, do you understand what problem you’re trying to solve?

If not, I would encourage you to ask your team.

What problem are we trying to solve here?

This is an example of how software testers can add value right at the start of the project by simply asking a question.