Analyze Best Practice Problem

Clarify an ill-defined problem through structured questioning, then map the problem space and surface possible routes before handing off to solution skills.

Why This Is Best Practice

Adopted by: Design Thinking's problem-definition phase (IDEO/Stanford d.school) is standard at Google, Apple, and IDEO before any solution is attempted — teams that skip it produce solutions targeting the wrong problem, requiring full redesign rather than iteration (IDEO HCD Field Guide, 2015). McKinsey's issue tree methodology (Rasiel, 1999) treats problem definition as a separate, mandatory step before any analysis begins. Donella Meadows (Thinking in Systems, 2008) identifies boundary definition — deciding what is inside vs. outside the system being analyzed — as the single most consequential decision in systems analysis, and the most commonly skipped. Impact: The Institute of Medicine (To Err is Human, 1999) found that the majority of medical errors trace to acting on a symptom without diagnosing the root cause — the most expensive form of the "wrong problem" failure. In software engineering, the majority of rework traces to misunderstood requirements, not implementation errors (Standish Group CHAOS Report). In both fields: solving the right problem poorly produces less waste than solving the wrong problem well. Why best: Practitioners who ask clarifying questions before solving report fewer "solution rejection" cycles — where a completed solution fails because it addressed the wrong aspect of the problem. The one-question-at-a-time constraint (vs. a batch of questions) is deliberate: batched questions overwhelm users and produce incomplete answers. Sequential questions surface progressively deeper information, with each answer informing the next question.

Sources: IDEO HCD Field Guide (2015); Rasiel, The McKinsey Way (1999); Meadows, Thinking in Systems (2008); Institute of Medicine (1999) To Err is Human; Standish Group CHAOS Report

Steps

Step 0: Match domain-specific analysis skill (silent)

Before running the default analysis steps, check if an installed skill is specifically designed for problem analysis in this domain.