4 Framing Statements That Shape Strategy in Large Organizations

A product lead walks into a strategy meeting, slides loaded, research prepped, and a problem she knows needs solving. She’s there to pitch a new initiative—one that could drive real impact.

Thirty minutes in, she’s still explaining the problem.

The senior stakeholder across the table leans forward and asks,

“Can you summarize this in one sentence?”

She hesitates.

“Well… it’s complicated, there’s nuance… I couldn’t exactly say…”

The room goes quiet. It’s not that her idea isn’t valuable—it’s that it’s unclear.

And in a high-stakes decision meeting, unclear is unconvincing.

This happens in every organization. Good ideas stall because the thinking isn’t framed. Stakeholders don’t get clarity, so they don’t give buy-in.

At Design Sprint Academy, we work with teams facing exactly this moment. When the stakes are high, and alignment matters, we bring the structure that helps ideas land and decisions move forward.

Here are four framing statements we use at Design Sprint Academy with large organizations—tested in high-stakes strategy rooms, AI opportunity-mapping workshops, and cross-functional problem framing sessions:

• The Opportunity Statement – to identify and communicate a user-centered opportunity worth exploring
• The Problem Statement – to align cross-functional teams around a validated, high-impact problem
• The Founding Hypothesis – to define what you believe will work, why it matters, and how to test it before building
• The Big Idea Statement – to frame a bold, user-driven future vision that inspires strategic investment or transformation

Let’s break them down.

1. The Opportunity Statement

I want [who] to be able to [do what], without the hassle of [pain], so they can achieve [desired outcome].

Why it works

The Opportunity Statement is empathetic and user-centered by design. It zooms in on what your customer wants to do, what’s getting in their way, and why it matters.

• It’s solution-agnostic—which is powerful early on. It frees the team from jumping into feature mode.
• It’s future-focused—nudging you to think about what behavioral change you’re trying to trigger.
• It’s a tool for strategic alignment, especially when multiple stakeholders have competing views. When framed clearly, even the skeptics can say, “Yes, that’s a problem worth solving.”

What to watch out for

Like any tool, it has blind spots:

• It doesn’t directly express business value—you still need a separate conversation to connect it to goals like revenue, retention, or regulatory risk.
• It assumes a good understanding of user needs. If your user research is shaky, your Opportunity Statement might be just a nice-sounding guess.

That said—it’s an excellent early-stage tool for surfacing high-potential bets.

Use it to:

• Help strategy or innovation teams prioritize what goes into your innovation funnel
• Frame AI or tech opportunities in a human-centered way
• Align stakeholders from product, design, compliance, and engineering
• Decide what challenges to escalate into an innovation hackathon or design sprint

💬 Insurance Example:

Why this works:

• Who: Insurance brokers
• Do what: Recommend insurers to clients
• Pain: Manual info gathering, unclear appetite
• Outcome: Faster decisions, better client service, more closed deals

This opens up multiple solution paths: a centralized appetite database, a real-time API for broker queries, or an AI agent trained on insurer rules. But right now, you’re not choosing a solution—you’re choosing what’s worth solving.

2. The Problem Statement

The [customer] has the problem of [pain] when trying to [job to be done]. Our solutions should [value to user] and also [value to business].

Why it works

The Problem Statement gives you shared clarity around what’s broken, why it matters, and what outcomes your solution should aim for.

• It invites systems thinking—grounding the problem in cause (context, situation), effect (the pain), and purpose (value created).
• It helps anchor cross-functional teams—when everyone can agree on when the problem happens (the task, moment, or situation), it’s much easier to understand what the actual friction is.
• It addresses both customer needs and business goals—helping you build empathy and business rationale in one clear articulation.

This makes it one of the most versatile alignment tools—especially when you’re juggling competing priorities or stakeholder agendas.

This is the tool to reach for when the question shifts from “Is this an opportunity?” to “Should we commit to solving this?”

What to watch out for

• Teams often skip over problem validation and write this based on assumptions. Without research, you risk building for the wrong context.
• The phrasing “our solutions should…” can sneak in feature thinking if you’re not careful.
• It’s not meant for vision—it’s meant for alignment before coming up with solutions.

Use it to:

• Wrap up a discovery sprint or problem framing workshop with a clear, aligned definition of the problem to solve
• Prepare for a Design Sprint, solution workshop, or co-creation session by creating a shared starting point
• Ground roadmap discussions, OKRs, or feasibility assessments in a single, validated articulation of the user and business pain

💬 Construction Example:

Why this works:

• Who: A real, high-responsibility user—new superintendents
• Pain: Inconsistent safety processes, information overload, lack of onboarding
• Job to be done: Keep the site safe and operations smooth
• Business value: Reduced accidents, improved operational continuity, regulatory protection

This is a compelling problem framing to take into an AI opportunity discussion, an executive roadmap review. It balances operational clarity, empathy, and business rationale.

3.  The Founding Hypothesis

If we help [who] solve [problem] with [solution], they’ll choose it over [alternatives] because it’s [differentiator].

(From Click by Jake Knapp)

Why it works

When your team has agreed on what problem to solve, the next challenge is making sure the solution actually makes sense—for the user and the business.

The Founding Hypothesis does just that.

• It helps you write down your strategic assumptions in plain English.
• It aligns user need, solution idea, and competitive differentiation in one line.
• It becomes your first test, before you build anything.

For large orgs, it’s a guardrail. It helps avoid what Jake Knapp calls “premature certainty.”

What to watch out for

• If your problem is fuzzy, this won’t save you. Go back to framing first.
• Teams often underestimate the alternative (“they’ll switch from what?” matters).
• It’s not a pitch—it’s a bet. If you’re not open to being wrong, you’re not ready to use it.

Use it to:

• Help product squads align before roadmap definition
• Frame your value proposition before investing in your MVP.
• Get early feedback from users, stakeholders, or investors, usually done through a design sprint.

💬 Women’s Health Example: Perimenopausal Fitness

Why this works:

• Who: Women in perimenopause (typically 35–50), managing hormonal fluctuations
• Problem: Many fitness programs ignore the impact of changing hormones on energy, mood, metabolism, and recovery. They simply treat women like "small men".
• Solution: An AI coach that dynamically adjusts training, nutrition, and recovery based on real-time hormonal stage and symptoms
• Differentiator: Not one-size-fits-all—adaptive, hormone-aware and built for women’s changing physiology, not just a “pink version” of male-centric programs

This hypothesis invites testing around:

• Trust in AI to understand complex, personal physiology
• Relevance and accuracy of recommendations across energy and cycle phases
• Emotional resonance—“finally, this gets me”

This hypothesis is a perfect anchor for testing adoption and stickiness.

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4. The Big Idea Statement

Also known as the Ideal State Canvas

WHO has the problem → WHAT is the problem → WHY it’s worth solving → IDEAL STATE vision

• Optional sliders for Feasibility, Scalability, and Impact

Why it works

The Big Idea Statement is your tool for vision-led alignment. It helps teams explore what a radically better future could look like, based on a real human problem.

• It allows leadership teams to dream big, but in a way that still respects user pain.
• It’s ideal for greenfield thinking—perfect when you need to think beyond incremental improvements.
• It pushes teams to imagine their 10-star experience—not just what’s possible today, but what would feel magical if constraints were lifted.
• It balances structured imagination with strategic judgment through voting sliders like Feasibility, Scalability, and Impact.
• It frames the conversation around “What could be”—essential for exploring AI, digital transformation, and platform opportunities.

It’s especially useful when you need to get executive buy-in or set a strategic north star before scoping initiatives.

What to watch out for

• If your team skips the real WHO/WHAT/WHY, the Ideal State turns into empty ambition.
• If overused, it may overshadow smaller but critical ideas that feel “less visionary.”
• Executive teams may get excited and forget the “why now?”—always loop back to urgency after inspiration.

Still, when the stakes are high and direction is unclear, this tool invites the kind of shared imagination that gets decisions moving.

Use it to:

• Explore AI-powered transformations in legacy industries
• Create a shared future vision with senior leaders
• Spark bold thinking in innovation programs, product strategy, or platform transformation
• Compare different ideas with structured criteria: Can we prototype it? Can we scale it? Will it move the needle?

💬 Language Learning Example: Expats in Saudi Arabia

This is a compelling use case for AI innovation teams exploring localized onboarding solutions, or for product leaders in global mobility, HR tech, or enterprise learning platforms.

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When to use each tool

At Design Sprint Academy, we help large organizations make faster, sharper decisions by using the right framing tool for the right purpose.

In our consulting projects, we don’t default to a single method—we choose based on what the team needs to decide:

• We use the Opportunity Statement to help sponsors and innovation leads prioritize challenges worth exploring.
• We use the Problem Statement to align stakeholders in our 1-day Problem Framing workshop—so teams move forward with clarity.
• We use the Big Idea Statement with executive teams when exploring AI opportunities - 1-day AI Opportunity Mapping Workshop
• We use the Founding Hypothesis with product teams preparing for Design Sprints and roadmap refinements.

What we’ve learned: The quality of your outcomes depends on the clarity of your starting point.

👉 So before you ask “What should we build?” ask instead:

What decision are we trying to make—and which framing tool will help us get there faster?