Should You Invest in a Problem Framing Workshop? A Checklist to Help You Decide

Problem Framing is the discipline of stepping back to ask: are we solving the right problem?

It’s a structured way to align senior stakeholders on what really needs attention — before jumping into solutions, feature ideas, or roadmaps. At its core, Problem Framing helps uncover root causes, synthesize research and business goals, and make better strategic decisions.

But — it’s not a casual meeting, nor an ad-hoc workshop.

Running a Problem Framing Workshop takes effort.

Not just from participants — but especially from the facilitator.

What does that investment actually look like?

For the facilitator, it typically means 3–4 weeks of groundwork: reviewing existing research, gathering internal data, connecting with key stakeholders, and planning the session. If there are knowledge gaps, this phase may also involve coordinating with research or operations teams to fill them.

On the day of the workshop itself, you’ll need 6–7 senior leaders or cross-functional decision-makers — focused, engaged, and ready to align.

Afterward, the facilitator usually takes on the task of synthesizing outputs into a clear, actionable report — something the team can use to inform their next sprint, product direction, or strategic plan.

And in many organizations, the role of facilitator is taken on by someone already wearing multiple hats: a Product Manager, Agile Coach, UX Designer, or Innovation Manager.

They’re the ones who sense misalignment early, notice when strategy discussions go in circles, and get tapped to “help fix it.”

In fact, they’re often expected to solve the problem before it’s even been properly defined.

And beyond the prep, facilitators must align senior stakeholders on the purpose, secure buy-in, and create psychological safety for open — and sometimes uncomfortable — conversations.

That’s exactly why most teams skip this step — and why they often end up solving the wrong thing.

A Harvard Business Review study found:

• 85% of executives agreed their organizations are bad at diagnosing problems
• 87% said this flaw carries significant costs

So why don’t more teams fix it?

Because there are real barriers — cultural, structural, and psychological — that get in the way:

• Pressure for immediate results – Teams are rewarded for fast action, not deep exploration. So they jump straight into solution mode.
• Overconfidence in their understanding – Leaders assume they already know the problem, and skip the hard work of testing that assumption.
• Discomfort with ambiguity – Framing means admitting you don’t have all the answers. That’s hard in high-stakes environments.
• Lack of tools or training – Without a clear process, problem framing feels abstract, slow, or overly theoretical.
• Rigid hierarchies and culture – In some organizations, it’s difficult to challenge assumptions or engage senior voices in co-creating a problem definition.

And yet, these challenges are exactly what make framing worth the effort.

When Is It Worth Making Time for a 1-Day Problem Framing Workshop?

Here are five questions we use with our clients to assess whether the investment is justified:

❓1. Is the problem fuzzy — hard to define or explain?

If your team struggles to clearly articulate the challenge in one sentence — or keeps circling back to redefine it — that’s a sign it’s fuzzy.

That fuzziness isn’t a red flag — it’s a pause sign.

Problem Framing is built for ambiguity. It helps teams stop spinning and start naming what’s actually broken (or missing) before committing to roadmaps or research plans.

❓2. Has this problem never been solved — by you or anyone else?

No past examples. No benchmarks. No obvious success stories.

If the problem is new to your team or even your industry, it deserves space to be explored — not rushed. This is often the case with AI use cases, emerging customer segments, or platform transitions.

Problem Framing helps you slow down just enough to ask better questions, so you don’t waste cycles on half-baked ideas.

❓3. Is it people-related — affecting customers, employees, or users?

If the problem involves human behavior — adoption, perception, motivation, trust — you’re in design thinking territory. No amount of dashboards will tell you why users drop off after onboarding or why teams resist a new workflow.

You need methods that combine data with empathy. That’s exactly where a framing workshop earns its keep.

Example: If the challenge sounds like “we need to understand why people aren’t doing X,” you’re ready to frame, not fix.

❓4. Is it blocking business growth or threatening competitiveness?

If this issue is holding back a key initiative, dragging KPIs, or creating tension across teams, then yes — it’s worth solving well. Especially if the cost of getting it wrong is high (think: churn, wasted dev time, missed OKRs).

Framing helps you avoid “busy work” and instead uncover what’s actually worth solving — with business goals and customer impact in mind.

❓5. Is it linked to a strategic goal, but the path is unclear?

Maybe your leadership team says, “We need to grow in Segment A,” or “We need a better experience for X customers.”

You know what you want (growth, retention, adoption), but not what’s holding you back.

A framing workshop won’t solve the problem — but it will set the right foundation so your solutions don’t collapse later. Framing surfaces the real obstacles.

To give you an example, one of our clients -a property and casualty insurance carrier- came to us with a business need: “We need to update our strategy and services to remain competitive in the market.”

Digging deeper, their Business and Operations team framed the challenge like this: “We’re struggling to meet brokers’ expectations with our processes and tools. This frustrates brokers, makes them look elsewhere, and creates missed business opportunities for us.”

There was no disagreement that the problem was real — but the team wasn’t aligned on what to do about it. Some leaned toward redesigning tools, others wanted to invest in broker relationship management, and a few weren’t sure where the root cause even was.

So — was it worth investigating through a Problem Framing Workshop? We ran it through the 5-point checklist:

1. ✅ Fuzzy? Yes — the root causes were tangled: outdated tools, communication gaps, process fragmentation.
2. ✅ Unsolved? Yes — previous fixes like static guides hadn’t addressed the core friction.
3. ✅ People-related? Yes — brokers, underwriters, product teams, and customer service were all affected.
4. ✅ Growth impact? Yes — broker frustration meant lost deals and declining competitiveness.
5. ✅ Strategic fit? Yes — strengthening broker relationships was a top priority.

They checked all five boxes.

That clarity gave the team the confidence to invest in a 1-day Problem Framing Workshop — which then set the direction for their next sprint and product roadmap.

Final Thought

If your current challenge checks at least three of these five boxes, it’s not just a “problem.” It’s a strategic blind spot.

Problem Framing doesn’t slow you down — it prevents wasted effort, aligns your stakeholders, and gives your team a clear target. When the cost of getting it wrong is high, framing is your best first step.

Frame it before you fix it.

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