How Siemens Energy’s Procurement Leaders Learned to Make Better Decisions, Faster
Berlin, June 3rd — 35 procurement leaders. One keynote. A new way of working.
Let’s face it: procurement is no longer just about negotiating the best price. It’s about navigating risk, regulation, and complexity — all while driving strategic value.
At Siemens Energy, 35 senior procurement managers gathered as part of their Talent Pool program to explore what that shift really looks like. We were invited to open the event with a keynote introducing three powerful frameworks—Problem Framing, the Foundation Sprint, and the Design Sprint. These methods are designed to help teams align quickly, make smarter decisions, and move with purpose. Here’s what we shared—and why it matters for any team navigating complexity and change.
1. The Real Problem Isn’t Execution — It’s Clarity
Before you can optimize processes or digitize operations, you need to know you’re solving the right problem.
That’s harder than it sounds. New CO₂ laws keep landing. Data is trapped in silos. Single-source supply chains collapse. And big decisions take weeks, if not months.
So we started the session with a provocation:
What if strategic clarity worked like a team muscle - something you build together through the right frameworks and focused practice?
2. One Loop. Three Methods. Zero Guesswork.
The heart of the keynote was a 3-part decision-making loop — built from 15 years of fieldwork with enterprise teams, and now formalized in Problem Framing, the Foundation Sprint, and the Design Sprint.
They’re not competing frameworks. They’re stages in the same strategic cycle:
- Problem Framing → Find and align on the right challenge
- Foundation Sprint → Build and test your strategic hypothesis
- Design Sprint → Rapidly prototype and validate with real users
We walked through all three—and more importantly, how to compare them so you can choose the right one at the right time.
👉 Principles
- Problem Framing: Start the right way
- Foundation Sprint: Get started, not perfect
- Design Sprint: Fail fast, learn fast
👉 Purpose
- Use Problem Framing when stakes are high and problems unclear
- Use Foundation Sprint when direction is foggy
- Use Design Sprint when you’ve got an idea to test
👉 Duration
- Problem Framing: 1-day + 2–3 weeks prep
- Foundation Sprint: 2 days
- Design Sprint: 4 days
👉 Team Composition
- Problem Framing = execs + key stakeholders
- Foundation Sprint= decision-makers + SMEs
- Design Sprint = cross-functional builders + testers
👉 Focus
- Problem Framing = 100% problem space
- Foundation Sprint = strategy and solution
- Design Sprint = execution and validation
👉 Output
- A validated problem statement
- A testable strategic hypothesis
- A user-tested prototype
After our keynote, the Siemens Energy team got hands-on:
- They framed real procurement challenges with exercises from our Problem Framing toolkit
- They explored solution directions with Foundation Sprint lenses
- They prototyped better ways of working -fast, focused, and customer-centered - with Design Sprint hands-on activities
Slow Decisions Are Expensive
You can’t afford to spend months in meetings, hoping for alignment. Not when regulations shift weekly. Not when supply chains are fragile. Not when user expectations keep rising.
What procurement needs — and what product leaders already know — is that clarity, speed, and user insight aren’t a luxury. They’re the foundation for everything else.
👉 Want to embed this loop in your team?
Explore our corporate training programs.
