How Might We Questions (Explanation & Examples)

- Do you feel like you are stuck with a problem and can't come up with creative ideas? In this video I'm gonna show you a simple format called the 'How Might We questions' to help you get unstuck. You can use this format to reframe your problem into a challenge, so that you can generate lots of creative ideas for solving it.

I've used How Might We notes in more than 60 design sprints and I train teams to start using them. So make sure you stick to the ends because I show you exactly what I normally teach in my design thinking training. And don't worry if you feel like you are not the creative person, because this format has helped me to get the creativity flowing Okay, so let's move to the workshop.

And as every week we have a virtual presentation so that you can follow along. How Might We Questions for powerful problem-solving and the agenda of today is pretty simple. We're gonna look at some examples. We're gonna look at how to reframe your problems, and we're gonna do a fun exercise called worst possible ideas.

but let's start with the definition. How Might We or HMW. This format helps us to reframe our biggest challenge without prescribing a solution. How, suggests that we do not have the answer yet. It helps to explore, instead of just executing on what we think the solution might be, might, might suggest that the group can put ideas out there that might work or might not, either way it's okay.

And we brings in the element of collaboration. It reminds us that the most optimal solution will most likely come from teamwork. You can think of this format as a stimulus for your idea generation and it allows you to really think outside of the box. So how did it work? It's actually quite simple. You have a problem and you reframe it to turn a problem into a positive challenge.

So instead of finding something that's unsolvable you start with How Might We then put your challenge over there and then end with the question mark so that it becomes an opportunity to resolve. For example, if you have a problem that scrum masters are confused about how to collaborate online, then you could rewrite that as an opportunity in the way that How Might We help scrum masters feel in control and relaxed when working remote.

This simple step of reframing your problem into a question you can solve, is what How Might We notes are all about. So that's it. Thank you for watching and seeing the next one. Now just kidding, of course I promise to show examples and to show what I teach in design thinking training. So, let's move forward.

But in a sense in the basics, this is How Might We notes work. But what could be helpful, if you're feeling maybe a bit stuck in writing How Might We notes is to divide it up in smaller parts. So, let's start with our problem again. So scrum masters are confused about how to collaborate online. Then these three steps will help you to define your how might we notes.

So the first step is to define an action, then the subject and then the outcome. In this case we want to help, so it's easy. Scrum masters, and the outcome is that they feel in control and relaxed when working remote. By breaking the How Might We note down in these three parts, it becomes easier to write them.

And also if you have a number of items over here you can also start to mix and match, to maybe come up with new ideas. Of course, this is all about creativity so don't feel like you're being put in a box. It just helps you to get started. And if you think it flows better if you're not making use of these boxes then, that's also perfectly fine.

But let's have a look at two examples of How Might We notes. So in this case if there is a problem about the school system, then if you're a writing an How Might We note where you're gonna redesign all the schools that's probably too broad and too hard to solve. But if you make it, How Might We create the best online course for high schools using Zoom, PowerPoint, and Word, that's probably too specific because then, you're assuming that these tools are gonna help you to provide the best online course.

So what you could do to rephrase that and to make it inspiring and specific is to focus it on a high school. So How Might We redesign a high school into a cohort based course? And the cohort based course is an online education program where you joined with a small group of people and you follow the same educational program.

But let's get back to the examples, so you don't want to make it too broad because then it's too hard to solve your problem. And you also don't want to make too specific because then you are already providing the solution and then, the How Might We notes are not the best tool to use. Let's have a look at another example of traveling, it's a tiring experience.

So if you will rewrite it into a How Might We note, then, this one How Might We design a great travel experience is too broad, because then, you're trying to solve everything. But these two might be more specific and inspiring. So how might we remove all waiting time at airports for parents? This way you make it more specific to airports to parents and the waiting time.

Or how can we make waiting time the most fun part of travel for parents? So instead of solving the whole problem around the travel experience, we are slicing it up and we are starting to explore how we can help this specific user group for this specific use case. And this technique of slicing or reframing, this is a great technique to make really big problems smaller, and to make it easier to solve them.

So let's have a look at a couple of examples on how you can do reframing. If we have the problem that waiting on airports is horrible, then we can boost the positive, inspect the opposite slice the problems or question assumptions. And I'm gonna show you a couple more over here, but let's start with this one.

So if you want to boost the positive, then we can say, How Might We use the energy of kids to entertain other passengers? So boosting the positive, the energy of the kids and to entertain other passengers this could be a great combination maybe. We're not sure yet, but that's okay because we are still exploring here.

If you want to inspect the opposite, then we could write, for example, how might we make an airport a place where kids find the waiting the most fun part of the experience. So again, we're making it specific for kids and we want to see instead of the default where waiting is the most boring part of the experience, we want to see if we can make it the opposite and make it the most fun part.

If we look at slicing the problem, then we could use this example. So instead of solving it for everyone, we can focus on how might we make waiting for delayed passengers a less painful or less boring experience. So in this case we are focusing on this specific user group. And if we solve it for this group first, then maybe it becomes easier to solve it for other groups later.

And then the last example on this page. So if we want to question assumptions, how might we make waiting time for all passengers completely disappear? So maybe it's not even necessary to have waiting time at all. Okay, another around, so three more examples on how to do reframing. We could break the status quo, we could create an analogy or identify unexpected help.

Of course, there are endless ways to do this so feel free to explore and to come up with your own ideas. But if we look at how to break the status quo, then maybe, How Might We redesign the onboarding procedure for all travelers, so you can check in five minutes before, can be an interesting research question.

Or if you want to create an analogy, How Might We make an airport for all travelers playground? Can you imagine being on a airport like this, would be fun, right? And then the last example, how might we use the free time of other travelers to do something good? So in this case, you identify unexpected help and you can use it for something positive.

So these are some quick and easy ways to reframe your questions. But if you still feel like you are stuck, then worst possible idea is a great way to get all the creativity flowing. And this exercise is exactly what it says. So come up with as many bad ideas as possible, brainstorm and feel free to put everything over there as you like.

In this case we have six examples of really horrible ideas. So maybe you have to arrive 24 hours before your flight or you're only allowed to fly one time per year, or no luggage is allowed or AI face recognition for border control. Maybe you're not allowed to stand still on the airport or maybe there are no more than three people allowed to stand next to each other.

So this is quite fun, but how can you make this useful and how can you make this something you can use for your own situation? That's actually quite simple. So pick the worst one and it doesn't really matter but pick the one you think is the worst. So maybe in this case, no luggage allowed and then search for the opposite of the worst attribute.

So in this case, no luggage allowed. What's the worst part of having no luggage? So the worst parts could be maybe, that you don't have any clothes. So free clothes at the hotel could be the opposite of that. So that could be an opportunity to explore if that's something worth pursuing. Or maybe people get bored in the plane because they don't have their laptop or their iPad.

So what you could do is that you have all those technology, actually it's gadgets maybe, that you'll have all those gadgets in the airplane. Or maybe all cosmetics are free to use at the place of destination. Of course, these are still a bit crazy ideas but that's actually the point of this exercise, to get crazy and to get creativity flowing.

Because what you will notice after a while is that, if you repeat mix and match, that you will see lots of new opportunities that you didn't see before. And because of that, the next step to your actual solution will become way easier. So let me know your worst possible ideas down in the comments. I would really love to know them.

And if you are there, then please like and subscribe as well because this will really help us to grow the channel. And what you could do next after you have framed your How Might We question, is to make use of dot voting. So if you have a list of many ideas, then voting on the one which has the most opportunity could be a great next step especially if you are with a team then probably you have different opinions.

So dot voting is really helpful for that. Or you could move to the ideate part of design thinking and more specific, Crazy EIghts is a way to ideate. And this topic I'm gonna talk about in next week's video. The Crazy Eights are a great way to coming up with solutions for your How Might We questions.

So hopefully this was helpful and I didn't say too many crazy things. If you do have any feedback for me, then let me know. I'm more than happy to learn from it and to improve in the next video. Like I said, like and subscribed below because this really helps to grow the channel. That's it for now. Thank you for watching and see you in the next one, peace.

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