Tips on Writing Good HMWs: Phrase Your HMW Questions Positively - Deepstash

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,’ ‘enhance,’ ‘promote’ and so on.

  • Problem: Users find the return process difficult.
  • HMW (poor): How might we make the return process less difficult?
  • HMW (good): How might we make the return process quick and intuitive?

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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.

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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.

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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...

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