Management Tools: Problem Solving 270

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This class covers lean tools that managers can use for problem solving and root cause analysis.

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MindManager Blog

Nine essential problem solving tools: The ultimate guide to finding a solution

October 26, 2023 by MindManager Blog

Problem solving may unfold differently depending on the industry, or even the department you work in. However, most agree that before you can fix any issue, you need to be clear on what it is, why it’s happening, and what your ideal long-term solution will achieve.

Understanding both the nature and the cause of a problem is the only way to figure out which actions will help you resolve it.

Given that most problem-solving processes are part inspiration and part perspiration, you’ll be more successful if you can reach for a problem solving tool that facilitates collaboration, encourages creative thinking, and makes it easier to implement the fix you devise.

The problem solving tools include three unique categories: problem solving diagrams, problem solving mind maps, and problem solving software solutions.

They include:

  • Fishbone diagrams
  • Strategy maps
  • Mental maps
  • Concept maps
  • Layered process audit software
  • Charting software
  • MindManager

In this article, we’ve put together a roundup of versatile problem solving tools and software to help you and your team map out and repair workplace issues as efficiently as possible.

Let’s get started!

Problem solving diagrams

Mapping your way out of a problem is the simplest way to see where you are, and where you need to end up.

Not only do visual problem maps let you plot the most efficient route from Point A (dysfunctional situation) to Point B (flawless process), problem mapping diagrams make it easier to see:

  • The root cause of a dilemma.
  • The steps, resources, and personnel associated with each possible solution.
  • The least time-consuming, most cost-effective options.

A visual problem solving process help to solidify understanding. Furthermore, it’s a great way for you and your team to transform abstract ideas into a practical, reconstructive plan.

Here are three examples of common problem mapping diagrams you can try with your team:

1. Fishbone diagrams

Fishbone diagrams are a common problem solving tool so-named because, once complete, they resemble the skeleton of a fish.

With the possible root causes of an issue (the ribs) branching off from either side of a spine line attached to the head (the problem), dynamic fishbone diagrams let you:

  • Lay out a related set of possible reasons for an existing problem
  • Investigate each possibility by breaking it out into sub-causes
  • See how contributing factors relate to one another

MindManager Fishbone Diagram 1

Fishbone diagrams are also known as cause and effect or Ishikawa diagrams.

2. Flowcharts

A flowchart is an easy-to-understand diagram with a variety of applications. But you can use it to outline and examine how the steps of a flawed process connect.

Flowchart | MindManager

Made up of a few simple symbols linked with arrows indicating workflow direction, flowcharts clearly illustrate what happens at each stage of a process – and how each event impacts other events and decisions.

3. Strategy maps

Frequently used as a strategic planning tool, strategy maps also work well as problem mapping diagrams. Based on a hierarchal system, thoughts and ideas can be arranged on a single page to flesh out a potential resolution.

Strategy Toolkit MindManager 2018

Once you’ve got a few tactics you feel are worth exploring as possible ways to overcome a challenge, a strategy map will help you establish the best route to your problem-solving goal.

Problem solving mind maps

Problem solving mind maps are especially valuable in visualization. Because they facilitate the brainstorming process that plays a key role in both root cause analysis and the identification of potential solutions, they help make problems more solvable.

Mind maps are diagrams that represent your thinking. Since many people struggle taking or working with hand-written or typed notes, mind maps were designed to let you lay out and structure your thoughts visually so you can play with ideas, concepts, and solutions the same way your brain does.

By starting with a single notion that branches out into greater detail, problem solving mind maps make it easy to:

  • Explain unfamiliar problems or processes in less time
  • Share and elaborate on novel ideas
  • Achieve better group comprehension that can lead to more effective solutions

Mind maps are a valuable problem solving tool because they’re geared toward bringing out the flexible thinking that creative solutions require. Here are three types of problem solving mind maps you can use to facilitate the brainstorming process.

4. Mental maps

A mental map helps you get your thoughts about what might be causing a workplace issue out of your head and onto a shared digital space.

Mental Map | MindManager Blog

Because mental maps mirror the way our brains take in and analyze new information, using them to describe your theories visually will help you and your team work through and test those thought models.

5. Idea maps

Mental Map | MindManager Blog

Idea maps let you take advantage of a wide assortment of colors and images to lay down and organize your scattered thought process. Idea maps are ideal brainstorming tools because they allow you to present and explore ideas about the best way to solve a problem collaboratively, and with a shared sense of enthusiasm for outside-the-box thinking.

6. Concept maps

Concept maps are one of the best ways to shape your thoughts around a potential solution because they let you create interlinked, visual representations of intricate concepts.

Concept Map | MindManager Blog

By laying out your suggested problem-solving process digitally – and using lines to form and define relationship connections – your group will be able to see how each piece of the solution puzzle connects with another.

Problem solving software solutions

Problem solving software is the best way to take advantage of multiple problem solving tools in one platform. While some software programs are geared toward specific industries or processes – like manufacturing or customer relationship management, for example – others, like MindManager , are purpose-built to work across multiple trades, departments, and teams.

Here are three problem-solving software examples.

7. Layered process audit software

Layered process audits (LPAs) help companies oversee production processes and keep an eye on the cost and quality of the goods they create. Dedicated LPA software makes problem solving easier for manufacturers because it helps them see where costly leaks are occurring and allows all levels of management to get involved in repairing those leaks.

8. Charting software

Charting software comes in all shapes and sizes to fit a variety of business sectors. Pareto charts, for example, combine bar charts with line graphs so companies can compare different problems or contributing factors to determine their frequency, cost, and significance. Charting software is often used in marketing, where a variety of bar charts and X-Y axis diagrams make it possible to display and examine competitor profiles, customer segmentation, and sales trends.

9. MindManager

No matter where you work, or what your problem-solving role looks like, MindManager is a problem solving software that will make your team more productive in figuring out why a process, plan, or project isn’t working the way it should.

Once you know why an obstruction, shortfall, or difficulty exists, you can use MindManager’s wide range of brainstorming and problem mapping diagrams to:

  • Find the most promising way to correct the situation
  • Activate your chosen solution, and
  • Conduct regular checks to make sure your repair work is sustainable

MindManager is the ultimate problem solving software.

Not only is it versatile enough to use as your go-to system for puzzling out all types of workplace problems, MindManager’s built-in forecasting tools, timeline charts, and warning indicators let you plan, implement, and monitor your solutions.

By allowing your group to work together more effectively to break down problems, uncover solutions, and rebuild processes and workflows, MindManager’s versatile collection of problem solving tools will help make everyone on your team a more efficient problem solver.

Download a free trial today to get started!

Ready to take the next step?

MindManager helps boost collaboration and productivity among remote and hybrid teams to achieve better results, faster.

management tools problem solving 270

Why choose MindManager?

MindManager® helps individuals, teams, and enterprises bring greater clarity and structure to plans, projects, and processes. It provides visual productivity tools and mind mapping software to help take you and your organization to where you want to be.

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  • Problem management: 8 steps to better p ...

Problem management: 8 steps to better problem solving

Alicia Raeburn contributor headshot

Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams. You can use problem management to solve for repeating major incidents. By organizing and structuring your problem solving, you can more effectively get to the root cause of high-impact problems—and devise a solution. Solving the root cause prevents recurrence and creates a repeatable solution to use on similar errors in the future.

In an IT department, errors and mishaps are part of the job. You can't always control these problems, but you can control how you respond to them with problem management. Problem management helps you solve larger problems and reduce the risk that they’ll happen again by identifying all connected problems, solving them, and planning for the future.

What is problem management?

Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams. Your team can use problem management to solve for repeating major incidents. By organizing and structuring your problem solving, you can more effectively get to the root cause of high-impact problems—and devise a solution. Problem management is a process—used mostly by IT teams—to identify, react, and respond to issues. It’s not for every problem, but it’s a useful response when multiple major incidents occur that cause large work interruptions. Unlike problem solving, problem management goes beyond the initial incident to discover and dissect the root causes, preventing future incidents with permanent solutions.

The goals of problem management are to:

Prevent problems before they start.

Solve for repetitive errors.

Lessen each incident’s impact. 

Problem management vs. incident management 

Example: Someone leaves their unprotected laptop in a coffee shop, causing a security breach. The security team can use incident management to solve for this one, isolated event. In this case, the team could manually shut down the accounts connected to that laptop. If this continues to happen, IT would use problem management to solve the root of this issue—perhaps installing more security features on each company laptop so that if employees lose them, no one else can access the information.

Problem management vs. problem solving

While similar in name, problem management differs slightly from problem-solving. Problem management focuses on every aspect of the incident—identifying the root cause of the problem, solving it, and prevention. Problem solving is, as the name implies, focused solely on the solution step. 

Example: You’re launching a new password management system when it crashes—again. You don’t know if anything leaked, but you know it could contain confidential information. Plus, it’s happened before. You start the problem management process to ensure it doesn’t happen again. In that process, you’ll use problem solving as a step to fix the issue. In this case, perhaps securing confidential information before you try to launch a new software.

Problem management vs. change management 

Change management targets large transitions within your workplace, good and bad. These inevitable changes aren’t always negative, so you can’t always apply problem management as a solution. That’s where change management comes in—a framework that helps you adjust to any new scenario.

Example: Your company is transitioning to a new cloud platform. The transition happens incident-free—meaning you won’t need problem management—but you can ease the transition by implementing some change management best practices. Preparing and training team members in the new software is a good place to start.

Problem management vs. project management

Project management is the framework for larger collections of work. It’s the overarching method for how you work on any project, hit goals, and get results. You can use project management to help you with problem management, but they are not the same thing. Problem management and project management work together to solve issues as part of your problem management process.

Example: During problem management, you uncover a backend security issue that needs to be addressed—employees are using storage software with outdated security measures. To solve this, you create a project and outline the tasks from start to finish. In this case, you might need to alert senior executives, get approval to remove the software, and alert employees. You create a project schedule with a defined timeline and assign the tasks to relevant teams. In this process, you identified a desired outcome—remove the unsafe software—and solved it. That’s project management.

The 8 steps of problem management

It’s easy to get upset when problems occur. In fact, it’s totally normal. But an emotional response is not always the best response when faced with new incidents. Having a reliable system—such as problem management—removes the temptation to respond emotionally. Proactive project management gives your team a framework for problem solving. It’s an iterative process —the more you use it, the more likely you are to have fewer problems, faster response times, and better outputs. 

1. Identify the problem

During problem identification, you’re looking at the present—what’s happening right now? Here, you’ll define what the incident is and its scale. Is this a small, quick-fix, or a full overhaul? Consider using problem framing to define, prioritize, and understand the obstacles involved with these more complex problems. 

2. Diagnose the cause

Use problem analysis or root cause analysis to strategically look at the cause of a problem. Follow the trail of issues all the way back to its beginnings.

To diagnose the underlying cause, you’ll want to answer:

What factors or conditions led to the incident?

Do you see related incidents? Could those be coming from the same source?

Did someone miss a step? Are processes responsible for this problem?

3. Organize and prioritize

Now it’s time to build out your framework. Use an IT project plan to organize information in a space where everyone can make and see updates in real time. The easiest way to do this is with a project management tool where you can input ‌tasks, assign deadlines, and add dependencies to ensure nothing gets missed. To better organize your process, define:

What needs to be done? 

Who’s responsible for each aspect? If no one is, can we assign someone? 

When does each piece need to be completed?

What is the final number of incidents related to this problem?

Are any of these tasks dependent on another one? Do you need to set up dependencies ?

What are your highest priorities? How do they affect our larger business goals ? 

How should you plan for this in the future?

4. Create a workaround

If the incident has stopped work or altered it, you might need to create a workaround. This is not always necessary, but temporary workarounds can keep work on track and avoid backlog while you go through the problem management steps. When these workarounds are especially effective, you can make them permanent processes.

5. Update your known error database

Every time an incident occurs, create a known error record and add it to your known error database (KEDB). Recording incidents helps you catch recurrences and logs the solution, so you know how to solve similar errors in the future. 

[product ui] Incident log example (lists)

6. Pause for change management (if necessary)

Larger, high-impact problems might require change management. For example, if you realize the problem’s root cause is a lack of staff, you might dedicate team members to help. You can use change management to help them transition their responsibilities, see how these new roles fit in with the entire team, and determine how they will collaborate moving forward.

7. Solve the problem

This is the fun part—you get to resolve problems. At this stage, you should know exactly what you’re dealing with and the steps you need to take. But remember—with problem management, it’s not enough to solve the current problem. You’ll want to take any steps to prevent this from happening again in the future. That could mean hiring a new role to cover gaps in workflows , investing in new softwares and tools, or training staff on best practices to prevent these types of incidents.

Read: Turn your team into skilled problem solvers with these problem-solving strategies

8. Reflect on the process

The problem management process has the added benefit of recording the process in its entirety, so you can review it in the future. Once you’ve solved the problem, take the time to review each step and reflect on the lessons learned during this process. Make note of who was involved, what you needed, and any opportunities to improve your response to the next incident. After you go through the problem management process a few times and understand the basic steps, stakeholders, workload, and resources you need, create a template to make the kickoff process easier in the future.

5 benefits of problem management

Problem management helps you discover every piece of the problem—from the current scenario down to its root cause. Not only does this have an immediate positive impact on the current issue at hand, it also promotes collaboration and helps to build a better product overall. 

Here are five other ways ‌problem management can benefit your team:

Avoids repeat incidents. When you manage the entire incident from start to finish, you will address the foundational problems that caused it. This leads to fewer repeat incidents.

Boosts cross-functional collaboration. Problem management is a collaborative process. One incident might require collaboration from IT, the security team, and legal. Depending on the level of the problem, it might trickle all the way back down to the product or service team, where core changes need to be made.

Creates a better user experience. It’s simple—the fewer incidents you have, the better your customer’s experience will be. Reducing incidents means fewer delays, downtime, and frustrations for your users, and a higher rate of customer satisfaction.

Improves response time. As you develop a flow and framework with a project management process, you’ll be better equipped to handle future incidents—even if they’re different scenarios.

Organizes problem solving. Problem management provides a structured, thoughtful approach to solving problems. This reduces impulsive responses and helps you keep a better problem record of incidents and solutions.

Problem management leads to better, faster solutions

IT teams will always have to deal with incidents, but they don’t have to be bogged down by them. That’s because problem management works. Whether you employ a full problem management team or choose to apply these practices to your current IT infrastructure, problem management—especially when combined with a project management tool—saves you time and effort down the road.

With IT project plans, we’ve made it easier than ever to track your problem management work in a shared tool. Try our free IT project template to see your work come together, effortlessly.

management tools problem solving 270

The Ultimate Guide to Problem Solving Tools

  • Ossian Muscad
  • March 10, 2022
  • No Comments

The Ultimate Guide to Problem Solving Tools

Last Updated on November 20, 2023 by Ossian Muscad

Problem-solving is a common task for businesses in any industry. It is an integral aspect of business operations, whether anticipating potential obstacles, addressing current issues, or improving systems for increased efficiency. Despite its necessity, problem-solving can often be complicated and time-consuming. It requires a systematic approach and the right tools to effectively navigate through. That’s where problem-solving tools come in handy.

This guide will discuss problem-solving tools and provide the necessary understanding and skills to apply them in your business context. From choosing the right tool to implementing it correctly and effectively, we provide a comprehensive walkthrough of various problem-solving tools and their nuances.

What are Problem Solving Tools?

Problem-solving tools are structured methodologies or frameworks that assist individuals or organizations in identifying, understanding, and effectively addressing challenges or issues. These tools simplify complex situations and provide a clear path toward problem resolution. They enable you to break down the problem into manageable parts, analyze each separately, and systematically investigate the root causes. 

Problem-solving tools also assist in brainstorming and evaluating potential solutions and ultimately implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of chosen solutions. Ultimately, the aim is to facilitate efficient, effective problem resolution and encourage a proactive problem-solving mindset. These tools are not one-size-fits-all but instead cater to various problems, each with unique characteristics and challenges.

Planning is the quickest and most straightforward way to see where you stand in the situation and where you need to end up to resolve it. Having a visual map in place will let you plot and determine the most efficient route you need to take from a dysfunctional situation to a practical solution. A problem-mapping tool or diagram makes it easier to see the following:

  • The root cause of an issue
  • Steps, necessary resources, and associated personal needs for each possible solution.
  • The most cost-effective and least time-consuming options.

Common Problem Solving Tools and Diagrams

A visual problem-solving process will help reinforce your understanding of the issue and is an excellent way for you and your team to convert abstract ideas into an actual, reconstructive plan. With that said, here are six examples of common problem-mapping diagrams that you can try:

Fishbone Diagram

The fishbone diagram, also known as the Ishikawa diagram, identifies potential causes of a problem. The bones in the diagram represent different factors contributing to the issue at hand. This type of diagram is popular because it’s easy to use and helps you brainstorm various potential causes for a problem.

The following are some common uses for fishbone diagrams:

  • Explore the potential causes of a problem
  • To structure and organize ideas during a brainstorming session.
  • To communicate the relationships between different variables.

Flowcharts are one of the most common problem-solving tools and often map out a process or system. The main benefit of using a flowchart is that it helps you see the issue from start to finish, allowing you to optimize different parts of the process.

Here are some common uses for flowcharts:

  • Document and improve an existing process.
  • Design a new process.
  • Diagram the steps in a complex procedure.
  • Show the logical sequence of events in a problem.

Strategy Maps

A frequently used tool for company strategic planning , strategy maps also work well for problem-solving tasks. They allow you to see how the different aspects of your business (objectives, measures, initiatives, and activities) connect and help you determine which objectives must be addressed to resolve a problem.

There are three main types of strategy maps:

  • Cause-and-Effect Maps
  • Objective Maps
  • Balanced Scorecard Maps

Each map type has its specific use, but all strategy maps share the same goal. And that is to help you see the big picture and understand how different elements in your business are interconnected.

Cause-and-Effect Diagram

The cause-and-effect diagram is a powerful problem-solving tool. This type of diagram is used to identify the root causes of a problem by mapping out all the possible factors contributing to it.

The following are some common uses for cause-and-effect diagrams:

  • Explore the potential causes of a problem.
  • To pinpoint the root cause of the issue.
  • To identify the relationships between various variables.

Objective Map

An objective map represents your company’s objectives and how they connect visually. This type of map can be helpful for understanding which objectives need to be addressed to resolve a problem.

The following are some common uses for objective maps:

  • Understand the relationships between different objectives.
  • To determine which objectives need to be addressed to resolve a problem.
  • To develop a plan of action for achieving objectives.

Balanced Scorecard Map

A balanced scorecard map visually represents your company’s objectives and how they are measured. This type of map can be helpful for understanding which objectives need to be addressed to resolve a problem.

The following are some common uses for balanced scorecard maps:

  • Understand the relationships between different objectives and measures.
  • To develop a plan of action for improving performance.
  • To track progress towards objectives.

No matter what type of problem you’re facing, there’s a diagram that can help you solve it. Therefore, by understanding the different types of diagrams and how to use them, you’ll need to prepare for any issue that comes your way.

How To Choose the Ideal Problem-Solving Tool?

Choosing the ideal problem-solving tool largely depends on the nature of the problem and its complexity. Here are some steps you can follow to select the most suitable tool:

  • Define the Problem: Before you choose a tool, you need to understand the problem clearly. What is the issue you’re trying to solve? What are its effects?
  • Identify the Nature of the Problem: Is the problem simple, complicated, or complex? Simple problems have predictable solutions, while complicated ones may require expert knowledge or detailed analysis. Complex problems involve many interconnected parts and are best approached by understanding those connections and their effects.
  • Consider the Level of Analysis Required: Some problems can be solved with a simple root cause analysis . In contrast, others may require more in-depth analysis, such as a SWOT or PESTEL analysis.
  • Identify the Resources Available: Some tools require specific resources or software. Ensure you have access to these resources before choosing a tool.
  • Consider Your Team’s Familiarity with the Tool: If your team is already familiar with a particular tool, it might be advantageous to use it. If not, you’ll need to consider whether there will be a learning curve and if sufficient time and resources are available for training.
  • Evaluate the Tool: Once you have chosen a tool, use it to solve the problem. Then, evaluate the effectiveness of the tool. Did it help solve the problem? Was it easy to use? Did it save time and resources? 

The goal is not just to solve the problem but to learn from the process. This learning can be applied to future problem-solving efforts, continuously improving your approach.

Streamline Problem-Solving Processes Using a Low-code Platform

Apart from traditional problem-solving tools, organizations can also use a low-code platform to streamline their problem-solving processes. Low-code platforms are software applications that enable users to quickly and easily develop custom applications with minimal coding knowledge required.

Organizations can use a low-code platform to create automated workflows and processes to identify, define, and solve problems in real-time. With the help of user-friendly drag-and-drop tools, these applications can be quickly customized to fit an organization’s specific needs.

Low-code platforms also allow organizations to include data analysis features in their problem-solving processes. By integrating with existing systems and data sources such as analytics dashboards or marketing automation software, organizations can get real-time insights and analytics to better understand their problem.

With the help of a low-code platform, organizations can streamline their problem-solving processes and ensure that problems are identified quickly and solved efficiently. This will save time and resources and enable companies to stay ahead of the competition. 

DATAMYTE Offers Problem-Solving Software Solutions

When it comes to solving problems, the team at DATAMYTE believes that data should be at the center of everything. We offer various software solutions to help you collect, analyze, and act on data.

The DataMyte Digital Clipboard is a comprehensive productivity and performance-boosting tool providing various features to help you create effective problem-solving solutions.

With the DataMyte Digital Clipboard, you can:

  • Capture data in real time.
  • Analyze data to identify trends and problems.
  • Communicate findings and recommendations.
  • Create workflows and flowcharts on how to solve a problem.
  • Create checklists that will help assess the issue and develop an effective solution.
  • Monitor progress and track results.

The DataMyte Digital Clipboard is just one of the many software solutions we offer at DATAMYTE . To learn more about our problem-solving software solutions, contact us today. We’ll be happy to discuss your specific needs and provide a customized solution that will help you resolve any issues you’re facing.

Equipping yourself with the right problem-solving tools can greatly enhance your organization’s ability to identify and address issues effectively. Whether it’s utilizing traditional methods such as diagrams and scorecards or leveraging modern technology like low-code platforms and the DataMyte Digital Clipboard, the key lies in selecting the appropriate tool based on the nature and complexity of the problem. 

Every problem presents an opportunity for improvement and innovation. So, embrace these challenges and use them to foster a culture of continuous learning and development within your organization. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the experts at DATAMYTE for a comprehensive, data-driven approach to problem-solving.

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management tools problem solving 270

management tools problem solving 270

How to master the seven-step problem-solving process

In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , Simon London speaks with Charles Conn, CEO of venture-capital firm Oxford Sciences Innovation, and McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin about the complexities of different problem-solving strategies.

Podcast transcript

Simon London: Hello, and welcome to this episode of the McKinsey Podcast , with me, Simon London. What’s the number-one skill you need to succeed professionally? Salesmanship, perhaps? Or a facility with statistics? Or maybe the ability to communicate crisply and clearly? Many would argue that at the very top of the list comes problem solving: that is, the ability to think through and come up with an optimal course of action to address any complex challenge—in business, in public policy, or indeed in life.

Looked at this way, it’s no surprise that McKinsey takes problem solving very seriously, testing for it during the recruiting process and then honing it, in McKinsey consultants, through immersion in a structured seven-step method. To discuss the art of problem solving, I sat down in California with McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin and also with Charles Conn. Charles is a former McKinsey partner, entrepreneur, executive, and coauthor of the book Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything [John Wiley & Sons, 2018].

Charles and Hugo, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for being here.

Hugo Sarrazin: Our pleasure.

Charles Conn: It’s terrific to be here.

Simon London: Problem solving is a really interesting piece of terminology. It could mean so many different things. I have a son who’s a teenage climber. They talk about solving problems. Climbing is problem solving. Charles, when you talk about problem solving, what are you talking about?

Charles Conn: For me, problem solving is the answer to the question “What should I do?” It’s interesting when there’s uncertainty and complexity, and when it’s meaningful because there are consequences. Your son’s climbing is a perfect example. There are consequences, and it’s complicated, and there’s uncertainty—can he make that grab? I think we can apply that same frame almost at any level. You can think about questions like “What town would I like to live in?” or “Should I put solar panels on my roof?”

You might think that’s a funny thing to apply problem solving to, but in my mind it’s not fundamentally different from business problem solving, which answers the question “What should my strategy be?” Or problem solving at the policy level: “How do we combat climate change?” “Should I support the local school bond?” I think these are all part and parcel of the same type of question, “What should I do?”

I’m a big fan of structured problem solving. By following steps, we can more clearly understand what problem it is we’re solving, what are the components of the problem that we’re solving, which components are the most important ones for us to pay attention to, which analytic techniques we should apply to those, and how we can synthesize what we’ve learned back into a compelling story. That’s all it is, at its heart.

I think sometimes when people think about seven steps, they assume that there’s a rigidity to this. That’s not it at all. It’s actually to give you the scope for creativity, which often doesn’t exist when your problem solving is muddled.

Simon London: You were just talking about the seven-step process. That’s what’s written down in the book, but it’s a very McKinsey process as well. Without getting too deep into the weeds, let’s go through the steps, one by one. You were just talking about problem definition as being a particularly important thing to get right first. That’s the first step. Hugo, tell us about that.

Hugo Sarrazin: It is surprising how often people jump past this step and make a bunch of assumptions. The most powerful thing is to step back and ask the basic questions—“What are we trying to solve? What are the constraints that exist? What are the dependencies?” Let’s make those explicit and really push the thinking and defining. At McKinsey, we spend an enormous amount of time in writing that little statement, and the statement, if you’re a logic purist, is great. You debate. “Is it an ‘or’? Is it an ‘and’? What’s the action verb?” Because all these specific words help you get to the heart of what matters.

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Simon London: So this is a concise problem statement.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah. It’s not like “Can we grow in Japan?” That’s interesting, but it is “What, specifically, are we trying to uncover in the growth of a product in Japan? Or a segment in Japan? Or a channel in Japan?” When you spend an enormous amount of time, in the first meeting of the different stakeholders, debating this and having different people put forward what they think the problem definition is, you realize that people have completely different views of why they’re here. That, to me, is the most important step.

Charles Conn: I would agree with that. For me, the problem context is critical. When we understand “What are the forces acting upon your decision maker? How quickly is the answer needed? With what precision is the answer needed? Are there areas that are off limits or areas where we would particularly like to find our solution? Is the decision maker open to exploring other areas?” then you not only become more efficient, and move toward what we call the critical path in problem solving, but you also make it so much more likely that you’re not going to waste your time or your decision maker’s time.

How often do especially bright young people run off with half of the idea about what the problem is and start collecting data and start building models—only to discover that they’ve really gone off half-cocked.

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah.

Charles Conn: And in the wrong direction.

Simon London: OK. So step one—and there is a real art and a structure to it—is define the problem. Step two, Charles?

Charles Conn: My favorite step is step two, which is to use logic trees to disaggregate the problem. Every problem we’re solving has some complexity and some uncertainty in it. The only way that we can really get our team working on the problem is to take the problem apart into logical pieces.

What we find, of course, is that the way to disaggregate the problem often gives you an insight into the answer to the problem quite quickly. I love to do two or three different cuts at it, each one giving a bit of a different insight into what might be going wrong. By doing sensible disaggregations, using logic trees, we can figure out which parts of the problem we should be looking at, and we can assign those different parts to team members.

Simon London: What’s a good example of a logic tree on a sort of ratable problem?

Charles Conn: Maybe the easiest one is the classic profit tree. Almost in every business that I would take a look at, I would start with a profit or return-on-assets tree. In its simplest form, you have the components of revenue, which are price and quantity, and the components of cost, which are cost and quantity. Each of those can be broken out. Cost can be broken into variable cost and fixed cost. The components of price can be broken into what your pricing scheme is. That simple tree often provides insight into what’s going on in a business or what the difference is between that business and the competitors.

If we add the leg, which is “What’s the asset base or investment element?”—so profit divided by assets—then we can ask the question “Is the business using its investments sensibly?” whether that’s in stores or in manufacturing or in transportation assets. I hope we can see just how simple this is, even though we’re describing it in words.

When I went to work with Gordon Moore at the Moore Foundation, the problem that he asked us to look at was “How can we save Pacific salmon?” Now, that sounds like an impossible question, but it was amenable to precisely the same type of disaggregation and allowed us to organize what became a 15-year effort to improve the likelihood of good outcomes for Pacific salmon.

Simon London: Now, is there a danger that your logic tree can be impossibly large? This, I think, brings us onto the third step in the process, which is that you have to prioritize.

Charles Conn: Absolutely. The third step, which we also emphasize, along with good problem definition, is rigorous prioritization—we ask the questions “How important is this lever or this branch of the tree in the overall outcome that we seek to achieve? How much can I move that lever?” Obviously, we try and focus our efforts on ones that have a big impact on the problem and the ones that we have the ability to change. With salmon, ocean conditions turned out to be a big lever, but not one that we could adjust. We focused our attention on fish habitats and fish-harvesting practices, which were big levers that we could affect.

People spend a lot of time arguing about branches that are either not important or that none of us can change. We see it in the public square. When we deal with questions at the policy level—“Should you support the death penalty?” “How do we affect climate change?” “How can we uncover the causes and address homelessness?”—it’s even more important that we’re focusing on levers that are big and movable.

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Simon London: Let’s move swiftly on to step four. You’ve defined your problem, you disaggregate it, you prioritize where you want to analyze—what you want to really look at hard. Then you got to the work plan. Now, what does that mean in practice?

Hugo Sarrazin: Depending on what you’ve prioritized, there are many things you could do. It could be breaking the work among the team members so that people have a clear piece of the work to do. It could be defining the specific analyses that need to get done and executed, and being clear on time lines. There’s always a level-one answer, there’s a level-two answer, there’s a level-three answer. Without being too flippant, I can solve any problem during a good dinner with wine. It won’t have a whole lot of backing.

Simon London: Not going to have a lot of depth to it.

Hugo Sarrazin: No, but it may be useful as a starting point. If the stakes are not that high, that could be OK. If it’s really high stakes, you may need level three and have the whole model validated in three different ways. You need to find a work plan that reflects the level of precision, the time frame you have, and the stakeholders you need to bring along in the exercise.

Charles Conn: I love the way you’ve described that, because, again, some people think of problem solving as a linear thing, but of course what’s critical is that it’s iterative. As you say, you can solve the problem in one day or even one hour.

Charles Conn: We encourage our teams everywhere to do that. We call it the one-day answer or the one-hour answer. In work planning, we’re always iterating. Every time you see a 50-page work plan that stretches out to three months, you know it’s wrong. It will be outmoded very quickly by that learning process that you described. Iterative problem solving is a critical part of this. Sometimes, people think work planning sounds dull, but it isn’t. It’s how we know what’s expected of us and when we need to deliver it and how we’re progressing toward the answer. It’s also the place where we can deal with biases. Bias is a feature of every human decision-making process. If we design our team interactions intelligently, we can avoid the worst sort of biases.

Simon London: Here we’re talking about cognitive biases primarily, right? It’s not that I’m biased against you because of your accent or something. These are the cognitive biases that behavioral sciences have shown we all carry around, things like anchoring, overoptimism—these kinds of things.

Both: Yeah.

Charles Conn: Availability bias is the one that I’m always alert to. You think you’ve seen the problem before, and therefore what’s available is your previous conception of it—and we have to be most careful about that. In any human setting, we also have to be careful about biases that are based on hierarchies, sometimes called sunflower bias. I’m sure, Hugo, with your teams, you make sure that the youngest team members speak first. Not the oldest team members, because it’s easy for people to look at who’s senior and alter their own creative approaches.

Hugo Sarrazin: It’s helpful, at that moment—if someone is asserting a point of view—to ask the question “This was true in what context?” You’re trying to apply something that worked in one context to a different one. That can be deadly if the context has changed, and that’s why organizations struggle to change. You promote all these people because they did something that worked well in the past, and then there’s a disruption in the industry, and they keep doing what got them promoted even though the context has changed.

Simon London: Right. Right.

Hugo Sarrazin: So it’s the same thing in problem solving.

Charles Conn: And it’s why diversity in our teams is so important. It’s one of the best things about the world that we’re in now. We’re likely to have people from different socioeconomic, ethnic, and national backgrounds, each of whom sees problems from a slightly different perspective. It is therefore much more likely that the team will uncover a truly creative and clever approach to problem solving.

Simon London: Let’s move on to step five. You’ve done your work plan. Now you’ve actually got to do the analysis. The thing that strikes me here is that the range of tools that we have at our disposal now, of course, is just huge, particularly with advances in computation, advanced analytics. There’s so many things that you can apply here. Just talk about the analysis stage. How do you pick the right tools?

Charles Conn: For me, the most important thing is that we start with simple heuristics and explanatory statistics before we go off and use the big-gun tools. We need to understand the shape and scope of our problem before we start applying these massive and complex analytical approaches.

Simon London: Would you agree with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: I agree. I think there are so many wonderful heuristics. You need to start there before you go deep into the modeling exercise. There’s an interesting dynamic that’s happening, though. In some cases, for some types of problems, it is even better to set yourself up to maximize your learning. Your problem-solving methodology is test and learn, test and learn, test and learn, and iterate. That is a heuristic in itself, the A/B testing that is used in many parts of the world. So that’s a problem-solving methodology. It’s nothing different. It just uses technology and feedback loops in a fast way. The other one is exploratory data analysis. When you’re dealing with a large-scale problem, and there’s so much data, I can get to the heuristics that Charles was talking about through very clever visualization of data.

You test with your data. You need to set up an environment to do so, but don’t get caught up in neural-network modeling immediately. You’re testing, you’re checking—“Is the data right? Is it sound? Does it make sense?”—before you launch too far.

Simon London: You do hear these ideas—that if you have a big enough data set and enough algorithms, they’re going to find things that you just wouldn’t have spotted, find solutions that maybe you wouldn’t have thought of. Does machine learning sort of revolutionize the problem-solving process? Or are these actually just other tools in the toolbox for structured problem solving?

Charles Conn: It can be revolutionary. There are some areas in which the pattern recognition of large data sets and good algorithms can help us see things that we otherwise couldn’t see. But I do think it’s terribly important we don’t think that this particular technique is a substitute for superb problem solving, starting with good problem definition. Many people use machine learning without understanding algorithms that themselves can have biases built into them. Just as 20 years ago, when we were doing statistical analysis, we knew that we needed good model definition, we still need a good understanding of our algorithms and really good problem definition before we launch off into big data sets and unknown algorithms.

Simon London: Step six. You’ve done your analysis.

Charles Conn: I take six and seven together, and this is the place where young problem solvers often make a mistake. They’ve got their analysis, and they assume that’s the answer, and of course it isn’t the answer. The ability to synthesize the pieces that came out of the analysis and begin to weave those into a story that helps people answer the question “What should I do?” This is back to where we started. If we can’t synthesize, and we can’t tell a story, then our decision maker can’t find the answer to “What should I do?”

Simon London: But, again, these final steps are about motivating people to action, right?

Charles Conn: Yeah.

Simon London: I am slightly torn about the nomenclature of problem solving because it’s on paper, right? Until you motivate people to action, you actually haven’t solved anything.

Charles Conn: I love this question because I think decision-making theory, without a bias to action, is a waste of time. Everything in how I approach this is to help people take action that makes the world better.

Simon London: Hence, these are absolutely critical steps. If you don’t do this well, you’ve just got a bunch of analysis.

Charles Conn: We end up in exactly the same place where we started, which is people speaking across each other, past each other in the public square, rather than actually working together, shoulder to shoulder, to crack these important problems.

Simon London: In the real world, we have a lot of uncertainty—arguably, increasing uncertainty. How do good problem solvers deal with that?

Hugo Sarrazin: At every step of the process. In the problem definition, when you’re defining the context, you need to understand those sources of uncertainty and whether they’re important or not important. It becomes important in the definition of the tree.

You need to think carefully about the branches of the tree that are more certain and less certain as you define them. They don’t have equal weight just because they’ve got equal space on the page. Then, when you’re prioritizing, your prioritization approach may put more emphasis on things that have low probability but huge impact—or, vice versa, may put a lot of priority on things that are very likely and, hopefully, have a reasonable impact. You can introduce that along the way. When you come back to the synthesis, you just need to be nuanced about what you’re understanding, the likelihood.

Often, people lack humility in the way they make their recommendations: “This is the answer.” They’re very precise, and I think we would all be well-served to say, “This is a likely answer under the following sets of conditions” and then make the level of uncertainty clearer, if that is appropriate. It doesn’t mean you’re always in the gray zone; it doesn’t mean you don’t have a point of view. It just means that you can be explicit about the certainty of your answer when you make that recommendation.

Simon London: So it sounds like there is an underlying principle: “Acknowledge and embrace the uncertainty. Don’t pretend that it isn’t there. Be very clear about what the uncertainties are up front, and then build that into every step of the process.”

Hugo Sarrazin: Every step of the process.

Simon London: Yeah. We have just walked through a particular structured methodology for problem solving. But, of course, this is not the only structured methodology for problem solving. One that is also very well-known is design thinking, which comes at things very differently. So, Hugo, I know you have worked with a lot of designers. Just give us a very quick summary. Design thinking—what is it, and how does it relate?

Hugo Sarrazin: It starts with an incredible amount of empathy for the user and uses that to define the problem. It does pause and go out in the wild and spend an enormous amount of time seeing how people interact with objects, seeing the experience they’re getting, seeing the pain points or joy—and uses that to infer and define the problem.

Simon London: Problem definition, but out in the world.

Hugo Sarrazin: With an enormous amount of empathy. There’s a huge emphasis on empathy. Traditional, more classic problem solving is you define the problem based on an understanding of the situation. This one almost presupposes that we don’t know the problem until we go see it. The second thing is you need to come up with multiple scenarios or answers or ideas or concepts, and there’s a lot of divergent thinking initially. That’s slightly different, versus the prioritization, but not for long. Eventually, you need to kind of say, “OK, I’m going to converge again.” Then you go and you bring things back to the customer and get feedback and iterate. Then you rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. There’s a lot of tactile building, along the way, of prototypes and things like that. It’s very iterative.

Simon London: So, Charles, are these complements or are these alternatives?

Charles Conn: I think they’re entirely complementary, and I think Hugo’s description is perfect. When we do problem definition well in classic problem solving, we are demonstrating the kind of empathy, at the very beginning of our problem, that design thinking asks us to approach. When we ideate—and that’s very similar to the disaggregation, prioritization, and work-planning steps—we do precisely the same thing, and often we use contrasting teams, so that we do have divergent thinking. The best teams allow divergent thinking to bump them off whatever their initial biases in problem solving are. For me, design thinking gives us a constant reminder of creativity, empathy, and the tactile nature of problem solving, but it’s absolutely complementary, not alternative.

Simon London: I think, in a world of cross-functional teams, an interesting question is do people with design-thinking backgrounds really work well together with classical problem solvers? How do you make that chemistry happen?

Hugo Sarrazin: Yeah, it is not easy when people have spent an enormous amount of time seeped in design thinking or user-centric design, whichever word you want to use. If the person who’s applying classic problem-solving methodology is very rigid and mechanical in the way they’re doing it, there could be an enormous amount of tension. If there’s not clarity in the role and not clarity in the process, I think having the two together can be, sometimes, problematic.

The second thing that happens often is that the artifacts the two methodologies try to gravitate toward can be different. Classic problem solving often gravitates toward a model; design thinking migrates toward a prototype. Rather than writing a big deck with all my supporting evidence, they’ll bring an example, a thing, and that feels different. Then you spend your time differently to achieve those two end products, so that’s another source of friction.

Now, I still think it can be an incredibly powerful thing to have the two—if there are the right people with the right mind-set, if there is a team that is explicit about the roles, if we’re clear about the kind of outcomes we are attempting to bring forward. There’s an enormous amount of collaborativeness and respect.

Simon London: But they have to respect each other’s methodology and be prepared to flex, maybe, a little bit, in how this process is going to work.

Hugo Sarrazin: Absolutely.

Simon London: The other area where, it strikes me, there could be a little bit of a different sort of friction is this whole concept of the day-one answer, which is what we were just talking about in classical problem solving. Now, you know that this is probably not going to be your final answer, but that’s how you begin to structure the problem. Whereas I would imagine your design thinkers—no, they’re going off to do their ethnographic research and get out into the field, potentially for a long time, before they come back with at least an initial hypothesis.

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Hugo Sarrazin: That is a great callout, and that’s another difference. Designers typically will like to soak into the situation and avoid converging too quickly. There’s optionality and exploring different options. There’s a strong belief that keeps the solution space wide enough that you can come up with more radical ideas. If there’s a large design team or many designers on the team, and you come on Friday and say, “What’s our week-one answer?” they’re going to struggle. They’re not going to be comfortable, naturally, to give that answer. It doesn’t mean they don’t have an answer; it’s just not where they are in their thinking process.

Simon London: I think we are, sadly, out of time for today. But Charles and Hugo, thank you so much.

Charles Conn: It was a pleasure to be here, Simon.

Hugo Sarrazin: It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Simon London: And thanks, as always, to you, our listeners, for tuning into this episode of the McKinsey Podcast . If you want to learn more about problem solving, you can find the book, Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything , online or order it through your local bookstore. To learn more about McKinsey, you can of course find us at McKinsey.com.

Charles Conn is CEO of Oxford Sciences Innovation and an alumnus of McKinsey’s Sydney office. Hugo Sarrazin is a senior partner in the Silicon Valley office, where Simon London, a member of McKinsey Publishing, is also based.

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What Is Problem Solving in Project Management? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

  • Written by Contributing Writer
  • Updated on August 4, 2023

What Is Problem Solving

In project management , problem-solving is a crucial and necessary skill. Whether you have failed to consider every possible factor impacting a project, a problem arises through no fault of your own, or conditions change that create issues, problems must be addressed promptly to keep projects on track.

In this article, we will define problem-solving and how it impacts projects, provide real-world examples of problem-solving, and give you a structured, step-by-step process to solve problems. We’ll also show you how earning a project management certification can help you gain practical experience in problem-solving methods.

What Is Problem-Solving?

Problem-solving is a process to identify roadblocks or defects that arise during a project. A structured system to define problems, identify root causes, brainstorm and test solutions, and monitor results can affect change to improve performance and overcome challenges.

Effective problem-solving enables teams to deal with uncertainties or gaps in planning to minimize the impact on outcomes.

The Importance of Problem-Solving in Project Management

During a project and operation, problems can arise at any time. You may find that your planning before launching a product, for example, did not consider all the factors that impact results. You may find that you were too optimistic about project timelines, performance, or workforce. Or, as many of us discovered over the past few years, supply chain disruption may make even the best project plans obsolete.

Regardless, your job is identifying, solving, and overcoming these problems. Project managers must be skilled in leading team members through a structured approach to resolving problems.

Proactive problem-solving requires careful consideration of all the variables in a project, including preparation to:

  • Achieve project objectives
  • Address obstacles before they arise
  • Manage project risks and contingency plans
  • Manage communication and collaboration
  • Provide a framework for time and cost management
  • Provide a pathway for continuous improvement

Also Read: 10 Tips on How to Increase Productivity in the Workplace

Problem-Solving Steps in Project Management

While the process you choose to solve problems may vary, here is a seven-step framework many project managers use. This problem-solving method combines primary and secondary problem-solving steps.

#1. Define the Problem

  • Gather data and information from key stakeholders, team members, and project documentation. Include any relevant reporting or data analysis
  • Itemized key details, such as a description of the problem, timelines, outcomes, and impact
  • Frame the issue as a problem statement

A good example of a problem statement might be: An unexpected demand spike has exceeded our current production capacity. How can we still meet customer deadlines for delivery?

#2. Analyze Root Causes

  • Break down issues into smaller components to diagnose bottlenecks or problems
  • Identify the organizational, mechanical, environmental, or operational factors that contribute
  • Distinguish between one-time issues vs. systematic, ongoing areas that need improvement

When analyzing root causes, it’s common to find multiple factors contributing to a problem. As such, it is essential to prioritize issues that have the most significant impact on outcomes.

#3. Brainstorm Potential Solutions

  • Holding specific sessions focused on brainstorming ideas to resolve root causes
  • Build on ideas or suggest combinations or iterations
  • Categorize solutions by types, such as process or input changes, adding additional resources, outsourcing, etc.)

In brainstorming, you should refrain from immediately analyzing suggestions to keep ideas coming.

#4. Evaluate Potential Solutions

  • Reframe the problem and concern for team members, providing a framework for evaluation such as cost, timing, and feasibility
  • With ideas in hand, it is time to evaluate potential solutions. Project managers often employ strategies such as weighted scoring models to rank ideas.
  • Consider the pros and cons in relation to project objectives

As you narrow the list, getting additional insight from subject matter experts to evaluate real-world viability is helpful. For example, if you are proposing a process change in operating a machine, get feedback from skilled operators before implementing changes.

#5. Decide on a Plan of Action

  • Make a decision on which course of action you want to pursue and make sure the solution aligns with your organizational goals
  • Create an action plan to implement the changes, including key milestones
  • Assign project ownership, deadlines, resources, and budgets

Defining what outcomes you need to achieve to declare success is also essential. Are you looking for incremental change or significant improvements, and what timeline are you establishing for measurement?

#6. Implement the Action Plan

  • Communicate the plan with key stakeholders
  • Provide any training associated with the changes
  • Allocate resources necessary for implementation

As part of the action plan, you will also want to detail the measures and monitoring you will put in place to assess process outcomes.

#7. Monitor and Track Results

  • Track solution performance against the action plan and key milestones
  • Solicit feedback from the project team on problem-solving effectiveness
  • Ensure the solution resolves the root cause, creating the desired results without negatively impacting other areas of the operation

You should refine results or start the process over again to increase performance. For example, you may address the root cause but find a need for secondary problem-solving in project management, focusing on other factors.

These problem-solving steps are used repeatedly in lean management and Six Sigma strategies for continuous improvement.

Also Read: 5 Project Management Steps You Need to Know

How Project Management Tools Can Help You in Problem-Solving

Project management software can guide teams through problem-solving, acting as a central repository to provide visibility into the stages of a project.

The best project management software will include the following:

  • Issue tracking to capture problems as they arise
  • Chat and real-time collaboration for discussion and brainstorming
  • Templates for analysis, such as fishbone diagrams
  • Action plans, assigning tasks, ownership, and accountability
  • Dashboards for updates to monitor solutions
  • Reporting on open issues, mitigation, and resolution

Examples of Problem-Solving

Here are some examples of the problem-solving process demonstrating how team members can work through the process to achieve results.

Sign-ups for a New Software Solution Were Well Below First-Month Targets

After analyzing the data, a project team identifies the root cause as inefficient onboarding and account configurations. They then brainstorm solutions. Ideas include re-architecting the software, simplifying onboarding steps, improving the initial training and onboarding process, or applying additional resources to guide customers through the configuration process.

After weighing alternatives, the company invests in streamlining onboarding and developing software to automate configuration.

A Project Was at Risk of Missing a Hard Deadline Due to Supplier Delays

In this case, you already know the root cause: Your supplier cannot deliver the necessary components to complete the project on time. Brainstorming solutions include finding alternative sources for components, considering project redesigns to use different (available) components, negotiating price reductions with customers due to late delivery, or adjusting the scope to complete projects without this component.

After evaluating potential solutions, the project manager might negotiate rush delivery with the original vendor. While this might be more expensive, it enables the business to meet customer deadlines. At the same time, project schedules might be adjusted to account for later-than-expected part delivery.

A Construction Project Is Falling Behind Due to Inclement Weather

Despite months of planning, a major construction project has fallen behind schedule due to bad weather, preventing concrete and masonry work. The problem-solving team brainstorms the problem and evaluates solutions, such as constructing temporary protection from the elements, heating concrete to accelerate curing, and bringing on additional crews once the weather clears.

The project team might decide to focus on tasks not impacted by weather earlier in the process than expected to postpone exterior work until the weather clears.

Also Read: Understanding KPIs in Project Management

Improve Your Problem-Solving and Project Management Skills

This project management course delivered by Simpliearn, in collaboration wiht the University of Massachusetts, can boost your career journey as a project manager. This 24-week online bootcamp aligns with Project Management Institute (PMI) practices, the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification, and IASSC-Lean Six Sigma.

This program teaches skills such as:

  • Agile management
  • Customer experience design
  • Design thinking
  • Digital transformation
  • Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

You might also like to read:

5 Essential Project Management Steps You Need to Know

Project Management Frameworks and Methodologies Explained

13 Key Project Management Principles and How to Use Them

Project Management Phases: A Full Breakdown

How To Develop a Great Project Management Plan in 2023

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Problem management

Everything you need to know about effective problem management

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For this section, we will dive into the various techniques employed to find the root cause of a problem in an IT environment.

IT Problem management techniques

The problem management process can be mandated with a good service desk tool, but the techniques used for investigation and diagnosis should vary according to the organization. It's recommended that investigation techniques are flexible based on the organization's needs rather than being overly prescriptive.

Since problems can appear in any shape or size, it's impossible to stick to one technique to find a solution every time; instead, using a combination of techniques will yield the best results. A simple LAN connectivity problem might be solved with a quick brainstorming session, but a network or VoIP issue might need a deeper look.

Here are several techniques you can practice in your organization's problem management process.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming techniques  for problem solving

By establishing a dialogue between departments, you gain various perspectives and new information, generating many potential solutions.

To have a productive brainstorming session, you need a moderator. The moderator handles the following:

  • Driving the direction of the meeting
  • Documenting the insights obtained
  • Highlighting the measures to be taken
  • Tracking the discussed deliverable
  • Preventing a time-consuming session

Brainstorming sessions are more productive when collaborative problem-solving techniques, such as Ishikawa analysis and the five whys method, are used. These techniques will be discussed later in this section.

Kepner-Tregoe method

Kepner tregoe problem solving method

The Kepner-Tregoe (K-T) method is a problem-solving and decision-making technique used in many fields due to its step-by-step approach for logically solving a problem. It's well-suited for solving complex problems in both proactive and reactive problem management.

The method follows four processes:

  • Situation appraisal: Assessment and clarification of the scenario
  • Problem analysis: Connecting cause with effect
  • Decision analysis: Weighing the alternate options
  • Potential problem analysis: Anticipating the future

However, problem analysis is the only part that concerns IT problem management, and it consists of five steps.

Define the problem

Identifying what the problem truly is can be a problem in itself. Since problem management is inherently a collaborative effort, having a comprehensive definition of the problem eliminates preconceived notions that any participating member might have, saving a considerable amount of time.

For example, if an organization's automatic data backup on a server has failed, the problem can be defined as:

Failed backup on server

This definition indeed describes the deviation from the normal situation, but it demands more questions and information. A good model of a definition should be unambiguous and easily understood.

To remove ambiguity, the above definition can be updated to:

Data backup on November 15 failed on server #34-C

This definition provides more clarity, and spares employees from redundant questions. Nevertheless, this definition can be further improved. Suppose the cause of the data backup failure can be attributed to an event such as the application of a new patch; then the initial problem analysis would undoubtedly lead to this event.

To save time and effort, let's update the definition to:

Data backup on November 15 failed on server #34-C after application of patch 3.124 by engineer Noah

This detailed definition leaves no room for redundant questions, and provides a good amount of information on where the problem could lie. These extra minutes spent on the initial definition save valuable time and effort, provide a logical sense of direction to analysis, and remove any preconceived notions about the problem.

Describe the problem

The next step is to lay out a detailed description of the problem. The K-T method provides the questions that need to be asked on any problem to help identify the possible causes.

The questions below help describe four parts of any problem:

  • What is the problem?
  • Where did the problem occur?
  • When did the problem occur?
  • To what extent did the problem occur?

Each of these questions demands two types of answers:

IS: As in, "What is the problem?" or "Where is the problem?"

COULD BE but IS NOT: As in, "Where could the problem be but is not?"

This exercise helps compare and highlight the what, where, when, and how the deviation from normal performance in business processes is happening.

Establish possible causes

The comparison between normal performance and deviated performance made in the previous step helps in shortlisting the possible causes of the problem. Making a table with all the information in one place can be helpful to make the comparison.

New possible causes become evident when the information is assembled together. For our example problem, the root cause can be narrowed down to:

Procedural error caused by the inadequate transfer of knowledge by the Level 3 engineers.

Whatever the problem, a sound analysis for possible causes can be done based on relevant comparison.

Test the most probable cause

The penultimate step is to short-list the probable causes and test them before proceeding to the conclusion. Each probable cause should follow this question:

If _______ is the root cause of this problem, does it explain what the problem IS and what the problem COULD BE but IS NOT?

Again, it's beneficial to populate all the information into a table.

Verify the true cause

The final step is to eliminate all the improbable causes and provide evidence to the most probable causes. With this verification, it's time to propose a solution to the problem. Without evidence of the possible root cause, the solution should not be attempted.

Ishikawa analysis, or fishbone diagram analysis

Fishbone analysis

Ishikawa analysis uses the fishbone framework to enumerate the cause and effects of a problem, and can be used in conjunction with brainstorming sessions and the five whys method. The simplicity in executing RCA using an Ishikawa diagram shouldn't deceive you of its prowess to handle complex problems.

To start the analysis, define the problem and use it as the head of the fishbone. Draw the spine and add the categories that the problem could be originating from as ribs to the fishbone.

Generally, it's easiest to start the categories with the four dimensions of service management: partners, processes, people, and technology. However, these categories can be anything relevant to your problem, environment, organization, or industry.

Once these categories form the ribs of the fishbone, start attaching possible causes to each category. Each possible cause can also branch out to detail the reason for that occurrence. This could lead to a complex diagram of four to five levels of causes and effects, subsequently drilling down to the root cause of the problem.

Ishikawa diagaram

It's recommended to split up dense ribs into additional ribs as required. Alternatively, merging empty ribs with other suitable ribs keeps the fishbone clean and easy to read. Additionally, you should ensure the ribs are populated with causes, not just symptoms of the problem.

This analysis is again a collaborative effort, and requires a moderator to direct the brainstorming sessions in an effective way. Every participant has the opportunity to engage, providing a comprehensive view of the problem.

Pareto analysis

Pareto analysis

The Pareto principle is an observation that approximately 80 percent of effects come from approximately 20 percent of causes. This observation applies to a wide range of subjects, including problem management.

When trying to reduce the number of incidents occurring in an organization, it's highly efficient to apply Pareto analysis before jumping into solving the problems. Pareto analysis prioritizes the causes of incidents, and helps in managing problems based on their impact and probability.

This analysis is carried out by generating a Pareto chart from a Pareto table. A Pareto table consists of the cumulative count of classification of all problems. A Pareto chart is a bar graph showing the cumulative percentage of the frequency of various classification of problems.

To create a Pareto chart, follow the steps given below:

  • Collect problem ticket data from your service desk tool.
  • Remodel the data into categories based on various attributes.
  • Create a Pareto table to find the frequency of problems in each classification over a period of time.
  • Compute the frequency of problem occurrences in each category.
  • Generate the cumulative frequency percentage in decreasing order.
  • Plot the data on a graph to create a Pareto chart.

The most important step is to remodel the data into a countable set of classifications and attributes.

Pareto chart analysis

This chart helps identify the problems that should be solved first to significantly reduce service disruption. This analysis complements the Ishikawa and Kepner-Tregoe methods by providing a way to prioritize the category of problems, while the other methods analyze the root cause.

It's important to remember that the 80/20 rule suggests likely causes, and may be incorrect at times.

Five whys technique

5 whys example

Five whys is a straightforward technique for RCA. It defines a problem statement, then repeatedly asks why until the underlying root cause of the problem is discovered. The number of whys doesn't need to be limited to five, but can be based on the problem and the situation.

The five whys technique complements many other problem-solving techniques like the Ishikawa method, Pareto analysis, and the K-T method.

Using the previous example of the data backup failure in a server, let's apply the five whys technique.

The above iterative process reveals the absence of a standardized format, which has led to the problem of data backup failure.

For our purposes, the example above is a simple execution of the method. In a real scenario, the next question depends on the answer to the previous question, so it's imperative to collaborate with stakeholders who have elaborate knowledge of the domain the problem resides in.

By adopting parts of the K-T method along with the five whys technique, such as providing evidence to each answer before validating it with a return question, you can ensure precise analysis during problem-solving sessions.

5 whys to solve problems

Other techniques

Apart from the five major techniques, there are still numerous others, each with their own unique strengths. Overall, problem investigation is carried out using a combination of techniques suitable for the situation. Some other techniques that are prevalent in the problem management community are chronological testing, fault tree analysis, the fault isolation method, hypothesis testing, and pain value analysis. It's worth taking the time to learn many techniques as your organization's problem management process matures.

You have made it so far! In our penultimate part of the six-part series, you will learn about the best practices of problem management that can help you jump past any hurdles during your problem management journey.

Reactive vs Proactive problem management

Problem management best practices

Assess your incident response readiness to kick-start your problem management journey

The zeroth step in the journey towards proactive problem management is establishing a robust incident management process in your IT environment. Discover how Zoho, our parent company, handles the spectrum of incidents thrown at it year over year and assess your incident management readiness at an enterprise scale.

Download a free copy of our incident management handbook and a best practice checklist to review your problem management solution.

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Common Project Management Issues You Can Solve With the Right Tools

July 3, 2021 - 7 min read

Maria Waida

Every project manager faces project management issues from time to time. The good news is that managing risk and planning successful projects is easy when you use the right tools. The risks and issues project management professionals face can be prevented or decreased with a little advanced planning. Check out these project management problems and solutions you can use to effectively improve any future assignment with project management platforms such as Wrike. 

Common problems in project management

The most common project management issues tend to revolve around communication, organization, and tool functionality When there are many moving parts in an initiative, communication can break down, information can become lost or confusing, and project management issues can arise at every level. 

In this section, we’ll discuss how project managers can mitigate risk by identifying project management challenges and solutions. We’ll also get into the specific ways in which Wrike can solve or even prevent common project management issues. 

1. Poor team communication

Did you know that 63% of people have missed a message or important piece of information that went into a colleague’s inbox while that colleague was away or absent? Poor team communication can create unnecessary confusion and misunderstanding that may impact the success of a project. 

Solution : Swap disorganized email threads for Wrike’s work management capabilities, many of which allow users to chat about projects, attach relevant documents all in one place, and monitor changes in the deadline, scope, or anything else. 

2. Vague goal setting

Vague goal setting is one of the more common project management issues that can leave employees feeling unmotivated when faced with a mountain of assignments. Giving them something to aim for will help keep work focused and productive. 

Solution: When creating tasks, add details such as deadlines and approval requests to each step so each team member knows what to aim for. 

3. Inaccurate time management

Neglecting to keep track of each individual’s time spent on tasks can lead to poor planning and performance. Understanding how long a task takes or how much billable work an employee is logging helps with setting project duration in the future and measuring employee productivity. 

Solution: Automatically document how your teams spend time for more accurate billing and increased productivity with Wrike’s Timelog feature. 

4. Costly scope creep

Almost 50% of projects experience scope creep which leads to overused resources, missed timelines, and overspending. 

Solution: Communicate your vision clearly by plotting out phases, timelines, and task dependencies with Wrike’s visual planning tools to discover possible obstacles before they come up. 

5. Lack of accountability

Team members sometimes get confused about who is responsible for what at various stages of a project, especially if they’re working on multiple projects at the same time. 

Solution: Task assignees, @ mentions, and dashboards all make it simple to assign and monitor team progress. These tools also eliminate awkward “who was working on X” and “why hasn’t Y been completed” questions because all the details are in one place. 

6. Uneven workload distribution

Some assignees may be overworked while others might be underutilized, creating an imbalance that can have a negative impact on your team long term . 

Solution: Use Wrike’s workload charts to see individual team member availability across all active projects in real time. Assign or reassign tasks to employees with more wiggle room in their schedule. 

7. Overplanning

Project planning can take anywhere from 10% to 50% of your project timeline . 

Solution: Use Wrike to duplicate the workflows of past successful projects so that you don’t waste time reinventing the wheel for every new assignment. 

8. Poor risk assessment

Unexpected risks slow down projects because they take time to discover, assess, and remedy. 

Solution: Map out all of your projects in Wrike to see what risks each may face. Then, determine which risks are worth managing, call out key triggers, and create a plan for each one. 

9. Confusing expectations

Employees may know what to do but not when to do it or who they should collaborate with, which can lead to unnecessary back and forths or other time-wasting activities. 

Solution: Use Wrike to record all assignments, deadlines, and objectives so that everyone on your team knows what needs to happen when. 

10. No backup plans

To properly manage risks for project management issues, you need to make sure you know what to do if something goes wrong — which it inevitably will. 

Solution: Create a contingency plan within Wrike that details who is responsible and what needs to happen. Apply this planning for every risk you identify in the process.

11. Ineffective resource management

Running out of time or other vital project resources (such as budget and materials) could create roadblocks for your clients or the project as a whole. 

Solution: Use Wrike’s workload charts, task duration settings, and Gantt charts to see what and how many resources are needed.

12. Too little client engagement

Clients who don’t know what’s going on throughout the project can often feel dissatisfied with their experience, regardless of the project outcome. 

Solution: Keep your key stakeholders in the loop with Wrike’s client view which allows designated users to review specific projects, folders, or tasks and see what progress has been made at any point. 

13. Forgetting the big picture

If you manage more than one project or team at a time , there’s a chance you may overlook key issues that, when they arise, have the potential to derail entire assignments. 

Solution: Track all of your active projects in Wrike to get a bird’s eye view of potential conflicts between all open assignments at a glance. 

14. Poor team collaboration

Teams that lack the proper space to chat about projects and come up with creative ideas have a harder time accomplishing even the most basic of assignments. 

Solution: Use Wrike to loop in team members using @mention for assignees, stakeholders, and followers of any folder or task. Any updates made to task descriptions or progress will be seen by all relevant parties and everyone involved has a place where they can brainstorm ideas together. 

Manage these risks and issues with project management software

The most common problems in project management include everything from ineffective planning to poor communication and scope creep. However, using a project management tool can help you overcome or prevent all of these risks and issues. 

Use Wrike’s two-week free trial to organize project details, strategically assign tasks, and create a well-oiled process that ensures the success of each assignment.

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Maria Waida

Maria is a freelance content writer who specializes in blogging and other marketing materials for enterprise software businesses.

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The Performance Review Problem

As the arcane annual assessment earns a failing grade, employers struggle to create a better system to measure and motivate their workers.

​After an annual review that lasted about 10 minutes, a New Jersey-based account coordinator knew it was time to leave the public relations agency where he had worked for almost a year. 

The 25-year-old, who requested anonymity, asked for the meeting because his boss had not mentioned any formal assessment process, nor had his manager ever critiqued his work. The coordinator says he sat with a trio of senior executives who did not ask him any questions beyond how he would rate himself. He says they ignored his requests for guidance on how to advance at the agency. 

Screen Shot 2023-03-15 at 85749 AM.png

This example also illustrates one of the common failures in performance management: limiting reviews to once or twice a year without having any other meaningful career discussions in between. Nearly half (49 percent) of companies give annual or semiannual reviews, according to a study of 1,000 full-time U.S. employees released late last year by software company Workhuman. 

The only situation that is worse than doing one review per year is doing none at all, experts say. The good news is that only 7 percent of companies are keeping employees in the dark about their performance, and 28 percent of organizations are conducting assessments quarterly, the Workhuman study found.  

A Pervasive Problem

Reviews generally do not work.

That doesn’t mean that more-frequent formal meetings or casual sit-downs between supervisors and their direct reports are solving the performance review quandary, either. Only about 1 in 4 companies in North America (26 percent) said their performance management systems were effective, according to a survey of 837 companies conducted last fall by consulting firm WTW. And only one-third of the organizations said employees felt their efforts were evaluated fairly. 

Meanwhile, a Gallup survey conducted last year found that 95 percent of managers are dissatisfied with their organization’s review system.

The problem is not new, though it is taking on greater importance, experts say. Millennials and members of Generation Z crave feedback and are focused on career development. Meanwhile, the tight labor market has companies searching for ways to keep high-performing employees in the fold. Fewer than 20 percent of employees feel inspired by their reviews, and disengaged employees cost U.S. companies a collective $1.6 trillion a year, according to Gallup.

Lesli Jennings, a senior director at WTW, says part of the issue is that reviews are now so much more than a discussion of past performance. They include conversations about career development, employee experience and compensation. 

“The performance management design itself is not evolving as quickly as the objectives and the purpose that we have set out for what we want it to do,” Jennings says. 

Screen Shot 2023-03-15 at 84340 AM.png

Poor Review Practices

Some argue that means it’s time to completely scrap annual reviews and stop using scales composed of numbers or adjectives to rate employees. 

“Every single human alive today is a horribly unreliable rater of other human beings,” says Marcus Buckingham, head of people and performance research at the Roseland, N.J.-based ADP Research Institute. He says people bring their own backgrounds and personalities to bear in the reviews in what is called the “idiosyncratic rating effect.” He says the ratings managers bestow on others are more a reflection of themselves than of those they’re reviewing.

Buckingham adds that very few positions have quantifiable outcomes that can be considered a measure of competence, talent or success. It’s possible to tally a salesperson’s results or test someone’s knowledge of a computer program, he says, but he’s baffled by attempts to measure attributes such as “leadership potential.”

“I’m going to rate you on a theoretical construct like ‘strategic thinking’? Everybody knows that’s rubbish,” Buckingham says. He adds that performance reviews that offer rankings give “data that’s just bad” and insists that companies rely on data analytics because they don’t trust their managers’ judgment. But instead of working on improving their managers’ skills, he says, they put data systems in place. 

“Because we don’t educate our managers on how to have some of these conversations, we’ve decided that the solution is to give them really bad ratings systems or really bad categorization systems,” Buckingham says. 

R eviewing the Data

A mong North American employers:

  • More than 9 in 10 (93 percent) cited driving organizational performance as a key objective for performance management, yet less than half (44 percent) said their performance management program is ­meeting that objective.
  • Nearly 3 in 4 (72 percent) said ­supporting the career development of their employees is a primary objective, but only 31 percent said their performance management program was meeting that objective.
  • Less than half (49 percent) agreed that managers at their organization are ­effective at assessing the performance of their direct reports. 
  • Only 1 in 3 indicated that employees feel their performance is evaluated fairly. 
  • Just 1 in 6 (16 percent) reported having altered their performance management approach to align with remote and hybrid work models, which are rapidly becoming more prevalent.

Source: WTW 2022 Performance Reset Survey of 837 organizations worldwide, including 150 North American employers.

Data Lovers

Ratings aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon, however. “Data-driven” has become a rallying cry for companies as they seek to operate more efficiently. Organizations are trying to measure everything from sales to productivity, though such efforts can cause turmoil and hurt some individuals’ careers.

A June 2022 study of nearly 30,000 workers at an unnamed North American retail chain found that women were more likely to receive higher overall ratings than men, though women were ranked lower on “potential.” 

In that study, women were 12 percent more likely to be given the lowest rating for potential, as well as 15 percent and 28 percent less likely to receive the middle and highest potential ratings, respectively, according to the professors who conducted the study, Alan Benson of the University of Minnesota, Danielle Li of MIT and Kelly Shue of Yale. The authors also said women were 14 percent less likely to get promoted than men. “Because potential is not directly observed,” they noted, “these assessments can be highly subjective, leaving room for bias.” 

Screen Shot 2023-03-15 at 85749 AM.png

Birmingham left abruptly one afternoon and did not go in to work the next day, which he says Blizzard interpreted as his resignation. Blizzard did not respond to requests for comment.

Stack ranking became popular in the 1980s after it was embraced by General Electric. Its adoption has waned, though several tech companies continue to use it. Google and Twitter relied on stack ranking to decide who to let go in their recent rounds of layoffs, according to published reports.

Birmingham says that the system can cause anxiety and competition, which can kill team cohesion, and that arbitrary lower ratings adversely affect compensation and promotion potential. These systems can also suggest that a manager is ineffective, he says. “It implies that as managers, we basically have not done our job to hire them and train them appropriately or terminate them if they really aren’t working out.”

Birmingham says he is not opposed to ranking systems but doesn’t think they’re necessary. “I feel like the conversation about how to improve your career, what the expectations are for your job and what it will take to get to the next level are all things you can do without a rating,” he says.

Measurements Matter

Grant Pruitt, president and co-founder of Whitebox Real Estate, does not give any type of rating in his performance reviews, though he believes in using data to track his employees’ performance. “What isn’t measured can’t be managed,” says Pruitt, whose company has about 20 employees in several offices across Texas. 

At the beginning of the year, Whitebox employees set goals with their managers. Discussions are held about what benchmarks are reasonable, and these targets can be changed if there is a meaningful shift in business conditions. Team leaders hold weekly department meetings with their direct reports to discuss what’s happening and track progress. Managers hold quarterly private reviews with individuals to dig deeper into whether they’re meeting their goals and if not, why.

“Was it an achievable goal? Realistic? If it was, then what do we need to do to make sure we don’t miss it the next time?” Pruitt says. Whitebox switched to quarterly reviews about four years ago to address problems earlier and avoid having issues fester, Pruitt adds.

It’s easier to set goals for people in sales than for those in other departments, Pruitt concedes. However, he adds that executives need to brainstorm about targets they can use for other roles. For example, administrative employees can be rated on how quickly and efficiently they handle requests.

Pruitt maintains that the goal system makes it easier to respond when an employee disagrees with their manager about their performance review because there are quantitative measures to examine. The data also helps eliminate any unconscious bias a manager may have and helps ensure that a leader isn’t just giving an employee a good rating because they work out at the same gym or their children go to school together.

“I think that’s really where the numbers and the data are important,” Pruitt says. “The data doesn’t know whose kids play on the same sports team.”

Whitebox employees are also judged on how well they embrace the company’s core values, such as integrity, tenacity and coachability. Some of those values may require more-subjective judgments that can be more important than hitting quantifiable goals. 

Pruitt admits that there were occasions when he looked the other way with a few individuals who were “hitting it out of the park,” even though he believed they lacked integrity. But eventually, he had to let them go and the company lost money.

“They really came back to bite me,” Pruitt says.

Screen Shot 2023-03-15 at 84352 AM.png

Grades Are Good

Diane Dooley, CHRO of Iselin, N.J.-based World Insurance Associates LLC, also believes establishing quantitative methods to gauge employees’ performance is essential. “We are living in a world of data analytics,” she says. The broker’s roughly 2,000 employees are rated on a scale of 1 to 5.

World Insurance has taken numerous steps to remove bias from reviews. For example, last year the company conducted unconscious-bias training to help managers separate personal feelings from performance reviews. And all people managers convene to go over the reviews they’ve conducted. Dooley says that process gives everyone a chance to discuss why an employee was given a certain rank and to question some decisions. “We want to make sure we’re using the same standards,” she explains.

Currently, World Insurance conducts reviews only once a year because it has been on an acquisition binge and there hasn’t been time to institute a more frequent schedule. That will change eventually, says Dooley, who adds that she wants to introduce department grids that show how an employee’s rank compares to others’ on the team. 

“It’s just a tool that helps the department or the division understand where their people are and how we can help them collectively,” says Dooley, who has used the system at other companies. 

Dooley says she isn’t worried about World Insurance holding reviews only annually, because good managers regularly check in with their employees regardless of how frequently reviews are mandated.

Such conversations can easily fall through the cracks, however. “Managers want to manage the employees, but they get so caught up in the company’s KPIs [key performance indicators] and making sure that they’re doing everything that they need to do,” says Jennifer Currence, SHRM-SCP, CEO of WithIn Leadership, a leadership development and coaching firm in Tampa, Fla. “It’s hard to set aside the time.” 

WTW’s Jennings adds that managers sometimes avoid initiating conversations with employees who are not performing well. Such discussions are often difficult, and managers may not feel equipped to conduct them. 

“Having to address underperformers is hard work,” Jennings says. 

Additionally, experts say, coaching managers to engage in such sensitive discourse can be expensive and time-consuming.

Improve Your Performance Reviews

H ere’s how to make the review process more ­palatable for both managers and their direct reports:

  • Don’t limit conversations to once or twice per year. Every team is different, so leaders should decide what schedule is most appropriate for their departments. However, it’s important to deal with any problems as they arise; don’t let them fester.
  • Set performance goals and expectations at the beginning of the year so employees understand their responsibilities. This helps lend objectivity to the process by introducing measurable targets. However, the goals should be adjusted if there are major changes to the business or an employee’s circumstances. 
  • Explain how each employee’s position, as well as each department, fits into the company’s overall ­strategy. This will help employees understand why their job matters and why it’s important.
  • Simplify the process. There’s no need for a ­double-digit number of steps or numerous
  • questions that require long-winded answers. 
  • Consider a 360-degree approach. Input from employees’ colleagues or from other managers can help give a fuller picture of employees’ capabilities and contributions.
  • Eliminate proximity bias. You may not see some employees as often as others, especially if they work remotely, but that doesn’t mean they’re not working hard. 
  • End recency bias, which is basing a review on an employee’s most recent performance while ignoring earlier efforts. Don’t let recent mistakes overshadow the employee’s other impressive accomplishments.
  • Solicit feedback from employees. Reviews should be a two-way conversation, not a lecture.
  • Train managers to give advice calmly and helpfully. This is especially important when leaders must call out an employee’s subpar performance. 
  • Don’t discuss compensation during reviews. Employees are likely to be so focused on learning about a raise or bonus that they won’t pay much attention to anything else.

Increase Conversations

Finding the right formula for performance reviews is tricky. The company’s size, values, industry and age all play a role. Currence says businesses need to think about the frequency and purpose of these meetings. Some managers may have weekly discussions with their direct reports, but the conversations might center on status updates as opposed to performance. 

“We need to have more regular conversations,” Currence says. “There has to be a happy balance.”

San Jose, Calif.-based software maker Adobe Inc. was a pioneer when it eliminated annual reviews in 2012 after employees said assessments that look backward weren’t useful and managers lamented how time-consuming they were. Instead, Adobe introduced quarterly check-ins and did away with its numerical ratings system, even though the company is “data-driven,” according to Arden Madsen, senior director of talent management.

Screen Shot 2023-03-15 at 85749 AM.png

Adobe’s system has changed over the years as the company grew from about 11,000 employees in 2012 to around 28,000 today. In the beginning, employees were not asked a universal set of questions and the information gathered was not stored in a central place accessible to all. In 2020, Adobe instituted three or four questions that must be asked at each quarterly meeting, one of which is whether the employee has feedback for the manager. Other topics covered depend on the employee, their role and their goals.

Madsen says asking consistent questions and making reviews easily accessible are important, as internal mobility within the company has grown. 

Adobe, like many businesses, separates conversations about performance from discussions about raises and bonuses, even though they’re intertwined. 

“Money is so emotionally charged,” says WithIn Leadership’s Currence. “When we tie performance review conversations with money, we as human beings do not hear anything about performance. We only focus on the money.”    

Theresa Agovino is the workplace editor for SHRM.

Illustrations by Neil Jamieson.

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What Is Problem Solving?

Book Insights

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas With Pictures

8d problem solving process.

Solving Major Problems in a Disciplined Way

The FOCUS Model

A Simple, Efficient Problem-Solving Approach

Heuristic Methods

Going Back to Basics

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Creative Problem Solving Infographic

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Constructive Controversy

Improving Solutions by Arguing For and Against Your Options

Tree Diagrams

Simplifying Complexity

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Spotting Problems Before a Solution is Implemented

Creative Problem Solving

Finding Innovative Solutions to Challenges

Problem-Solving Sabotage

Tips to Make You Aware of Self-Sabotage Increasing Your Chance of a Positive Solution

Cause and Effect Analysis

Identifying the Likely Causes of Problems

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM)

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  1. The 5 Steps of Problem Solving

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  3. 9 steps to problem solving process

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  4. 5 Essential Project Management Steps

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  5. 7 steps in problem solving

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  6. 5 step problem solving process

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  1. Management Tools: Problem Solving 270

    Management Tools: Problem Solving 270 Provided by: Tooling U - SME Register Now › This class covers lean tools that managers can use for problem solving and root cause analysis. Course Objectives: Course ID 910220 Skill Focus Intermediate Instructor (s) Tooling U - SME Employee Type Method of Delivery Online Estimated Effort 60 Cost

  2. Management Tools: Problem Solving 270

    Management Tools: Problem Solving 270. This class covers lean tools that managers can use for problem solving and root cause analysis. Or fill out this form and a specialist will contact you shortly. Describe continuous improvement.

  3. PDF Class Catalog

    Total Quality Management Overview 261 Management Tools: Problem Solving 270 Management Tools: Product and Process Design 275 Lean Smart Manufacturing 280 Value Stream Mapping: The Current State 301 Six Sigma Goals and Tools 310 Value Stream Mapping: The Future State 311 Maintaining a Consistent Lean Culture 330 Transforming Lean into Business ...

  4. PDF CLASS CATALOG

    Management Tools: Problem Solving 270 Management Tools: Product and Process Design 275 Value Stream Mapping: The Present State 301 Value Stream Mapping: The Future State 311 Six Sigma Goals and Tools 310 Maintaining a Consistent Lean Culture 330 Transforming Lean Into Business Results 340

  5. 9 essential problem solving tools: the ultimate guide

    1. Fishbone diagrams Fishbone diagrams are a common problem solving tool so-named because, once complete, they resemble the skeleton of a fish. With the possible root causes of an issue (the ribs) branching off from either side of a spine line attached to the head (the problem), dynamic fishbone diagrams let you:

  6. The McKinsey guide to problem solving

    May 18, 2023 - Is it time to throw out the standard playbook when it comes to problem solving? Uniquely challenging times call for unique approaches, write Michael Birshan, Ben Sheppard, and coauthors in a recent article, and design thinking offers a much-needed fresh perspective for leaders navigating volatility.

  7. 7 Problem-Solving Skills That Can Help You Be a More ...

    These include analysis, communication, emotional intelligence, resilience, creativity, adaptability, and teamwork. 1. Analysis As a manager, you'll solve each problem by assessing the situation first. Then, you'll use analytical skills to distinguish between ineffective and effective solutions. 2. Communication

  8. Problem Solving Strategies for the Workplace [2023] • Asana

    4 steps to better problem solving. While it might be tempting to dive into a problem head first, take the time to move step by step. Here's how you can effectively break down the problem-solving process with your team: 1. Identify the problem that needs to be solved. One of the easiest ways to identify a problem is to ask questions.

  9. Problem management: 8 steps to better problem solving

    November 27th, 2022 6 min read Jump to section What is problem management? The 8 steps of problem management 5 benefits of problem management Problem management leads to better, faster solutions View Templates Summary Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams.

  10. The Ultimate Guide to Problem Solving Tools

    Problem-solving tools also assist in brainstorming and evaluating potential solutions and ultimately implementing and monitoring the effectiveness of chosen solutions. Ultimately, the aim is to facilitate efficient, effective problem resolution and encourage a proactive problem-solving mindset. These tools are not one-size-fits-all but instead ...

  11. management tools problem solving 270

    4 steps to better problem solving . While it might be tempting to dive into a problem head first, take the time to move step by step. Here's how you can effectively break down the problem-solving process with your team: 1. Identify the problem that needs to be solved. One of the easiest ways to identify a problem > is to ask questions. ... Problem solving is the act of defining a <b ...

  12. How to master the seven-step problem-solving process

    To discuss the art of problem solving, I sat down in California with McKinsey senior partner Hugo Sarrazin and also with Charles Conn. Charles is a former McKinsey partner, entrepreneur, executive, and coauthor of the book Bulletproof Problem Solving: The One Skill That Changes Everything [John Wiley & Sons, 2018].

  13. What is Problem Solving? Steps, Process & Techniques

    Finding a suitable solution for issues can be accomplished by following the basic four-step problem-solving process and methodology outlined below. Step. Characteristics. 1. Define the problem. Differentiate fact from opinion. Specify underlying causes. Consult each faction involved for information. State the problem specifically.

  14. Problem Solving 101 for Managers: 5 Essential Skills and Tips

    Communication is one of the five essential skills for effective problem-solving as a manager. Good communication skills are foundational to successful problem-solving, and managers must be able to articulate problems clearly, listen actively to feedback and suggestions, and communicate solutions effectively. Additionally, strong communication ...

  15. What Is Problem Solving in Project Management? Here's Everything You

    #1. Define the Problem Gather data and information from key stakeholders, team members, and project documentation. Include any relevant reporting or data analysis Itemized key details, such as a description of the problem, timelines, outcomes, and impact Frame the issue as a problem statement

  16. How Time Management Tools Can Boost Problem-Solving

    Learn how to use time management tools to solve complex problems as a management consultant. Discover tips and examples of tools such as SMART goals, mind maps, Gantt charts, and more.

  17. Problem Solving

    This Article Looks at Principles of Logic and How They Apply to Problems and Decisions. Actions. 1. 2. 3. Problems can occur at any time, and solutions often need to be found quickly. Delve into this wide variety of tools that will help you to identify the source of a problem, brainstorm solutions and select the best option.

  18. Using Project Management Software for Problem Solving

    1 See what others are saying Define your problem and goal Before you start using any project management software or tool, you need to have a clear definition of your problem and your desired...

  19. 5 techniques for IT problem management

    In this chapter of problem management guide, find the five different types of techniques used in problem management that you can practice in an organization. ... Brainstorming sessions are more productive when collaborative problem-solving techniques, such as Ishikawa analysis and the five whys method, are used. ... 270: 3,520: 92.73%: Category ...

  20. Project Management 2.0: Leveraging Tools, Distributed ...

    Gain an understanding of the project manager's role in strategic planning and portfolio management; Implement problem-solving and decision-making processes; ... 10.8 Problem-Solving Tools and Techniques 252. Root-Cause Analysis 252. ... Danger of Hasty Decisions 270. Decision-Making Styles 270. Autocratic Decision Maker 271.

  21. Tools to Solve Common Project Management Problems

    Every project manager faces project management issues from time to time. The good news is that managing risk and planning successful projects is easy when you use the right tools. The risks and issues project management professionals face can be prevented or decreased with a little advanced planning. Check out these project management problems and solutions you can use to effectively improve ...

  22. The Performance Review Problem

    A mong North American employers:. More than 9 in 10 (93 percent) cited driving organizational performance as a key objective for performance management, yet less than half (44 percent) said their ...

  23. Final Exam- Problem Solving Flashcards

    they saw problem solving as the searching of a problem space to find the path between the statement of the problem (initial state) and the solution of a problem (the goal state). this search is governed by operators and is usually accomplished by setting subgoals. -illustrated by Tower of Hanoi

  24. Problem Solving Approaches

    The Problem-Definition Process. Developing the Right Solution. Actions. 1. 2. 3. Quisque nisi velit, hendrerit in felis in, convallis pretium ex. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Vestibulum imperdiet molestie magna, quis sagittis orci.