Tips on Writing Good HMWs: Focus Your HMWs on the Desired Outcome
To avoid solving symptoms of the problems rather than the root problems themselves, ask yourself whether your HMW question focuses on the desired outcome. In the example below, the first HMW question loses sight of what we really want to achieve.
- Problem: Users often call us because they’re unsure about the application process.
- HMW (poor): How might we stop users from calling us?
- HMW (good): How might we make users feel confident they have all the information they need?
41
156 reads
CURATED FROM
IDEAS CURATED BY
Constructing how-might-we questions generates creative solutions while keeping teams focused on the right problems to solve.
“
The idea is part of this collection:
Learn more about problemsolving with this collection
How to beat procrastination
How to enhance your creative thinking
How to create a smooth transition in a new endeavor
Related collections
Similar ideas to Tips on Writing Good HMWs: Focus Your HMWs on the Desired Outcome
Tips on Writing Good HMWs: Avoid Suggesting a Solution in Your HMW Question
It can be easy to limit your thinking and embed solutions in your HMW questions. But doing so restricts the pool of possibilities, and fewer ideas are generated. In the example below, the first HMW suggests a particular type of solution, whereas the second is agnostic about any particular solutio...
Tips on Writing Good HMWs: Keep Your HMWs Broad
When writing HMW questions, ask yourself if you could rewrite them in a broader way? The broader the HMW, the more ideas can be generated.
- Insight: Users often spend a long time checking their submission for mistakes.
- HMW (good): How might we make it quick and easy for users...
Tips on Writing Good HMWs: Phrase Your HMW Questions Positively
Stating your HMW questions positively can generate more ideas and also encourage creativity.
If you find yourself using negative verbs like ‘reduce,’ ‘remove,’ ‘prevent,’ ask yourself if you can frame things more positively by using positive action verbs, like ‘increase,’ ‘create,’ ‘en...
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates