Decisions
15 min

Problem-statement inversion

Restate the problem as its opposite and see whether the new statement is the one you should have been solving.

Time cost
15 min
Output
A revised problem statement, with the original kept for comparison.
Steps
5

Use when

  • Every option on the table feels like a compromise.
  • The problem statement contains a solution inside it.
  • You have been working on this for a while with no movement.

Do not use when

  • The problem is well-posed and the work is execution.
  • You need a decision today. This generates questions, not answers.

Inputs required

  • The current problem statement, written down

Procedure

  1. 01

    Write the statement

    Exactly as you have been holding it, including any assumption baked into the wording.

  2. 02

    Invert the goal

    “How do I get X?” becomes “How would I guarantee no X?”. List the answers seriously. Several will be things you are currently doing.

  3. 03

    Invert the constraint

    Ask what the problem would be if the binding constraint vanished. If the answer is “there would be no problem”, the constraint is the problem.

  4. 04

    Invert the subject

    Ask whose problem this is. Often the statement names the wrong party, and the person who can act is not the person holding the question.

  5. 05

    Pick the better statement

    Compare the original and the inversions. Keep the one that, if solved, actually ends the difficulty.

Characteristic failure mode

Inverting forever. Each inversion produces a plausible new question, and a problem can be restated indefinitely without ever being solved. Two inversions, then choose.

Worked example

A team asks: how do we get people to read our documentation?

  1. 01Invert the goal: how would we guarantee nobody reads it? Keep it long, keep it out of the tool, let it go stale.
  2. 02Two of the three describe the current state.
  3. 03Invert the subject: whose problem is an unread document? The reader“s, only if they need the answer — otherwise it is the author”s.

Result

The statement becomes “how do we answer the questions people actually have, where they have them”. Different problem, and the old one was unsolvable as posed.

Where to go next