Problem framingRoot cause ~20 min · 6 steps

Abstraction

Asking 'Why' enough times ensures you're solving the right problem. Asking 'How' helps you explore the right solution.

Overview

An Abstraction Ladder is an incredibly simple, and powerful, tool. The basic idea is repeatedly asking why until you get to the right level of abstraction, to ensure you're actually solving the right problem.

The format is based on the "5 Whys" technique — just ask why enough times until you reach the root problem. Think about a common request that's a bad problem statement: "We need to build a dashboard…"

Let's ask "why" a few times: Why do we need a dashboard? So people can get the data they need. Why do people need data? To do their job. Why do they need data to do their jobs? So they can make informed decisions.

Even asking "why" three times helps us ask more meaningful things, like what decisions people need to make and how often.

How Might We, Why Should We

The "Why" question in the Abstraction Ladder — "In what ways might we…" — is similar to the popular Design Thinking question "How might we?".

That question came from a great paper, "Reducing Complexity in Conceptual Thinking Using Challenge Mapping" by Min Basadur. The thing worth calling out: Challenge Mapping is actually a pair of questions — How Might We, and Why Should We? Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

The worksheet

Start with the problem statement at the bottom. Ask 'Why?' to climb up the ladder; ask 'How?' to climb back down toward solutions.

How to do it

Get your initial problem statement written down, then use the Why-only version to explore multiple possible paths. As you get more comfortable that you're heading in the right direction, move to the Why & How version — go up the ladder with Why questions, then down the ladder with How questions.

Thought Starters

Look for assumptions and biases in your problem statement. Does it have hidden assumptions baked in (about how it's delivered, created, consumed)?

Try to avoid solutions in your problem statement. Make sure you're removing any solutions as you ask why.

Get the right level of abstraction. Eventually you could abstract any problem up to "solving world peace" — so make sure you aren't getting too abstract.