Problem exploration

How thoroughly did you and other planners explore the problem before beginning to develop the proposed solution?

• Thoroughly, planners made a concerted effort to involve the target group, to observe the system, and to rely on data about customer experiences in defining the problem. Furthermore, the problem has been posted publicly where employees can often see it.
  
• Not very thoroughly, Planners had first hand experience with the system and feel they know its problems. Little attempt was made to explore customer data or to rely on target group opinions. The problem has not been posted publicly.
  
• Not thoroughly, the people familiar with the process did not help explore the problem.

If you checked not thoroughly or not very thoroughly, you have a weak problem exploration. Your odds of successfully implementing the change are reduced by 3.5 times or by 9 times depending how weak your problem exploration has been. What can you do about this? How can you recover from this situation? Should you abandon the project? Think hard about it and write out an outline of your plans below:

When done, click here to proceed to the next question.

This page was designed by Farrokh Alemi Ph.D in January 1998.  Last revision on 05/03/15.
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