Problem Statement Framing

Step-by-step guidance to synthesizing, refining and prioritizing problem statements

1) Identify and contextualize the problem

The first step in writing a problem statement is to spot the issue, and start gathering data. Step into the environment where the problem happens—whether in support, production, or somewhere else—and try to experience it firsthand. Begin to connect how this problem currently effects the mission or business.

After seeing the problem for yourself, talk to the people closest to it. That might include support teams, cross-functional partners, or anyone with hands-on documentation. Additionally, leverage user and stakeholder research to also map out the full scope of the problem.

What is the problem?
What symptoms do we notice about the problem space?
How have we tried to solve this problem before? Why didn't that work?
What assumptions and biases surround this problem?
What do we know to be true about this problem? What data do we have on hand?
Who experiences the problem?
When, where and how do they experience it?
What consequences are produced by the problem?
How do individual lived experiences alter those current outcomes?
How does this measurably impact the mission/business today?

2) Find the root cause

This is the opportunity to really dig into the "why" questions behind the issue to identify its origin point. To do this we can execute a number of other practices and plays to uncover root cause context that will help us refine our problem statements.

Root cause methods

Qualitative and conversational

5 Whys A simple but powerful technique where you repeatedly ask "why" to dig deeper into a problem.
User interviews: One-on-one conversations with users allow you to explore their experiences, needs, and motivations in depth. The open-ended nature of interviews helps uncover pain points that users might not be consciously aware of or articulate in a survey.
Focus groups: While not for deep root cause discovery, focus groups can be used in the early stages of a project to brainstorm and explore a problem space.

Observational and analytical

Value Stream Mapping: A Lean tool used to visualize the flow of work, materials, and information needed to deliver value to a customer—from request to delivery.
Usability testing: Observe users as they attempt to complete specific tasks. Researchers can see exactly where users get stuck, make mistakes, or become confused. Asking users to "think aloud" during the process can provide the "why" behind their behavior.
Accessibility testing: Accessibility testing is the practice of ensuring your product is usable to as many people as possible, including those with visual impairments, hearing disabilities, and other physical or cognitive conditions.
User session recordings: Tools that record real users' screens as they interact with your product can visually reveal usability issues and points of friction. You can watch their actual behavior rather than just relying on what they say they do.
Analytics and heatmaps: Quantitative analytics tools that track user or system behavior at a macro or micro level.
Data and metrics collection: Data & Metrics Collection is the disciplined way we capture, govern, and interpret evidence to learn/validate whether our products, services or even delivery processes are achieving the desired outcomes, and improving the mission.

Framework-based

Journey mapping: This visualization of the end-to-end user experience, including all touchpoints and emotional states, can highlight specific pain points and opportunities for improvement along the way.
Service Blueprint mapping: A user research technique that creates a visual diagram of an entire service, showing the customer experience alongside the internal processes that support it, including front-stage interactions, backstage employee actions, and underlying support systems.
Affinity diagramming: A collaborative process where a team groups similar observations and ideas from research into clusters. This method helps to synthesize qualitative data and identify common themes that point toward underlying root causes.
DDD Event Storming: serves as a highly collaborative workshop integral to Domain-Driven Design, facilitating the rapid discovery and exploration of a domain's core business processes.

3) Refine problem statements

The following templates will ensure problem statements are specifc, actor-focused (e.g. users, stakeholder or systems), and aligned to results that matter.

Wholistic and thourough approach

I am a [persona of interest; could be users, stakeholders, services or even entire systems].
I'm trying to [accomplish a task, job-to-be-done, goal],
but [the problem or challenge they're experiencing]
because [the root cause to our problem/challenge]
which makes me feel [emotion/sentiment]
and contributes to [current mission/business impact condition].

Exmaples

Domain	Scenario	Problem Statement (preferred format)
Developer Platforms	OAuth onboarding & docs	I am a partner developer integrating OAuth 2.0. I’m trying to complete authentication and make my first successful API call, but I keep receiving token errors and 4xx responses on day one because the quickstart examples are inconsistent across languages and the doc flow buries required parameters. Which makes me feel frustrated and uncertain, and contributes to delayed integrations, higher support ticket volume, and early churn risk.
Developer Platforms	FedRAMP/ATO-friendly CI	I am a federal platform engineer. I’m trying to pass security scans in CI to move toward ATO, but my builds fail on approved runners because there are no STIG-hardened base images or signed SBOMs available. Which makes me feel blocked and anxious about compliance timelines, and contributes to missed delivery milestones and stalled accreditation.
Developer Platforms	Webhooks reliability in sandbox	I am a backend engineer. I’m trying to validate webhooks end-to-end before production, but I can’t reliably replay events because the platform sandbox lacks message retry and an easy tunnel for local testing. Which makes me feel nervous about hidden failure modes, and contributes to production rollbacks and longer incident MTTR.
Developer Platforms	Quotas & rate limits	I am an API consumer on a new team. I’m trying to achieve time-to-first-2xx under 30 minutes, but I keep hitting rate limits unexpectedly because default quotas and 429 guidance are undocumented in the quickstart. Which makes me feel confused and stuck, and contributes to false incident escalations and wasted engineering time.
Developer Platforms	Cross-SDK observability	I am an SRE on call. I’m trying to triage an incident quickly, but traces and metrics are inconsistent across official SDKs because they ship different OpenTelemetry versions and naming conventions. Which makes me feel blind during outages, and contributes to longer MTTR and SLO breaches.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Post-discharge enrollment	I am a recently discharged Veteran. I’m trying to enroll in primary care and benefits, but I have to re-enter the same information across multiple portals because systems aren’t integrated for identity and data reuse. Which makes me feel exhausted and discouraged, and contributes to delayed access to care and increased no-shows.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Caregiver respite scheduling	I am a family caregiver. I’m trying to schedule respite care, but appointment availability is a black box because clinic calendars and eligibility checks aren’t synchronized. Which makes me feel helpless and burned out, and contributes to missed appointments and avoidable emergency visits.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Claims intake system (system persona)	I am the claims intake system. I’m trying to accept complete submissions the first time, but I receive duplicate and abandoned forms because session timeouts are aggressive and progress saving is unclear. Which makes me feel overloaded and inefficient, and contributes to a growing backlog and longer decision timelines.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Medical records acquisition	I am a VA claims processor. I’m trying to verify medical evidence quickly, but provider records arrive late or via fax because there’s no reliable electronic exchange with key networks. Which makes me feel overwhelmed, and contributes to 30+ day stalls and dissatisfaction for Veterans.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Rural telehealth access	I am a rural Veteran. I’m trying to attend a video visit, but my connection drops repeatedly because the app is bandwidth-heavy and my area lacks broadband. Which makes me feel embarrassed and neglected, and contributes to missed visits and worsening health outcomes.
Dept of State	Visa category selection	I am a first-time traveler. I’m trying to select the correct visa category, but I often choose the wrong form because eligibility rules are buried in lengthy policy PDFs. Which makes me feel confused and anxious, and contributes to abandoned applications and rework at consulates.
Dept of State	Emergency passport appointments abroad	I am a U.S. citizen abroad. I’m trying to book an emergency passport appointment, but no slots appear for days because there’s no waitlist or auto-reassignment when cancellations occur. Which makes me feel stranded and stressed, and contributes to travel disruptions and hotline overload.
Dept of State	Cross-system applicant identity	I am a consular officer. I’m trying to adjudicate cases efficiently, but I keep encountering duplicate or mismatched records because there is no single applicant identifier across legacy systems. Which makes me feel frustrated and error-prone, and contributes to longer processing times and increased denial appeals.
Dept of State	Student (F-1) processing	I am an international student applicant. I’m trying to complete my F-1 application on time, but my I-20 uploads fail intermittently because the SEVIS integration times out under peak load. Which makes me feel worried about missing my start date, and contributes to rescheduling and school intake delays.
Dept of State	Appointment scheduling platform (system persona)	I am the visa appointment scheduling platform. I’m trying to help applicants confirm slots reliably, but many drop off at confirmation because time zones and local holidays aren’t surfaced clearly. Which makes me feel inefficient and brittle, and contributes to high no-show rates and uneven consular utilization.

Simple and quick approach

Current Situation: [Describe the current state conditions or context of the issue]
Problem: [Describe the specific issue or root cause Actors are facing today and how its preventing them from achieving their goal]
Actor Effects: [Explain how this is effecting the Actor, and the mission or business today]
Desired Target Results: [Describe the success criteria for an improved Actor outcome and mission or business impact]

Examples

Domain	Scenario	Problem Statement
Developer Platforms	API Onboarding & Auth Failures	Current Situation: New partners begin integrating with our REST API using our quickstart and OAuth 2.0 flow; first attempts frequently fail. Problem: Confusing auth flow and scattered docs cause 1st-day authentication failure rates of ~42%, preventing developers from reaching a first successful 2xx call. Actor Effects: Partner engineers burn 1–2 days on setup, open support tickets, and question platform reliability; business impact is delayed integrations and churn risk for strategic partners. Desired Target Results: Reduce first-day auth failures to ≤15%; raise time-to-first-2xx success to ≤10 minutes for 80% of new integrators; cut auth-related tickets by 50% within a quarter.
Developer Platforms	SDK Version Drift on Apple Silicon	Current Situation: Teams build against our official SDKs on mixed x86/ARM (Apple Silicon) environments. Problem: Version drift and missing ARM build flags in our SDK pipeline cause 18% of builds to fail locally but pass in CI, blocking reliable local development. Actor Effects: Developers waste hours diagnosing environment mismatches; slower release cadence and higher support load for our DX team. Desired Target Results: Bring local build success parity to ≥95% across ARM/x86; publish a deterministic setup script; reduce SDK build-failure tickets by 60% in 90 days.
Developer Platforms	Unpredictable Rate Limiting	Current Situation: Production APIs enforce shared rate limits across endpoints and tenants. Problem: Bursty, undocumented throttling triggers intermittent 429s during partner launches, masking as application errors and stalling go-live windows. Actor Effects: Dev teams implement brittle retries, dashboards show false incident spikes, and launch confidence drops. Desired Target Results: Publish per-endpoint quotas with deterministic headers; keep 429s under 1% of requests during launch weeks; zero Sev-2 incidents caused by rate limits.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Claims Delays from External Medical Records	Current Situation: Veterans submit disability claims that require records from non-VA providers. Problem: Provider record requests are predominantly fax-based and fail silently, adding a median 19-day delay to claims development. Actor Effects: Veterans experience longer time to decision and repeat outreach; VA staff rework increases; appeals risk rises. Desired Target Results: Reduce external record retrieval median time to ≤5 days via digital requests; improve first-pass decision rate by +20%; cut claims >30-day development holds by 40%.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Missed Appointments & Reminder Gaps	Current Situation: Veterans and caregivers receive mixed reminder channels (mail, phone) with inconsistent timing. Problem: Reminder timing and channel misalignment (no SMS/email for many) lead to a 12% no-show rate for specialty care. Actor Effects: Veterans face delayed care; clinics lose capacity; rescheduling backlogs grow. Desired Target Results: Implement multi-channel reminders with caregiver copy; reduce no-shows to ≤6%; reclaim ≥15% of lost clinic capacity within two scheduling cycles.
Dept of Veterans Affairs	Caregiver Stipend Application Complexity	Current Situation: Caregivers apply through a multi-page web form with duplicative questions across programs. Problem: Fragmented intake and unclear eligibility criteria cause 28% abandonment before submission and frequent incomplete applications. Actor Effects: Caregivers spend hours re-entering data; VA teams spend time on outreach and rework; delayed benefits disbursement. Desired Target Results: Consolidate intake with progressive disclosure; cut abandonment to ≤12%; increase complete-on-first-submit to ≥85%; shorten decision time by 20%.
Dept of State	Wrong Visa Starts by First-Time Travelers	Current Situation: Applicants choose visa types via public webpages with dense policy text and PDF links. Problem: Ambiguous eligibility guidance leads 14% of applicants to start the wrong visa path, later abandoning or reapplying. Actor Effects: Applicants incur delays and duplicate fees; consular staff handle corrective inquiries; appointment slots are misallocated. Desired Target Results: Provide an interactive eligibility guide; reduce wrong-start rate to ≤4%; lower abandoned applications by 40%; free up ≥10% appointment capacity.
Dept of State	DS-160 Session Timeouts & Data Loss	Current Situation: Applicants complete the DS-160 online form over low-bandwidth or shared devices. Problem: Inactivity timeouts and unclear save behavior cause form data loss for ~1 in 6 applicants, forcing restarts. Actor Effects: Applicants experience frustration and missed submission windows; support inquiries spike; processing timelines slip. Desired Target Results: Add autosave and clear progress indicators; cut restart incidents by 60%; raise first-session completion to ≥70% without assistance.
Dept of State	Embassy Appointment Time-Zone Confusion	Current Situation: Confirmation emails for biometrics and interviews display local embassy time without explicit time-zone labeling. Problem: Applicants traveling across borders misinterpret times, driving a 9% missed-appointment rate at high-volume posts. Actor Effects: Applicants face travel and lodging rework; posts lose throughput; reschedule queues grow. Desired Target Results: Standardize confirmations with explicit time zone and local conversion link; reduce missed appointments to ≤3%; improve daily slot utilization by ≥8%.

4) What's next?

Once you have refined a top list of problems, the next steps to consider are:

Continue performing ongoing assumptions tracking
Bring all mission, user and system context together with Impact Mapping, and run solution generation and prioritization exercises.
Organize Impact Map conclusions as hypothesis experiments, and leverage problem statements as the basis for framing outcomes on an Outcome-oriented Roadmap