1. Problem Framing
Kavindra Kumar Singh
Assistant Professor – IT
IILM GSM, Greater Noida

2. What is Problem?
• If you have started from the wrong place – with
the wrong decision problem – you won’t have
made the smart choice.
• The way you state your problem frames your
decision.
• It determines the alternatives you consider and
the way you evaluate them.
• A good solution to a well-posed decision problem
is almost a smarter choice than an excellent
solution to a poorly posed one.

3. Decision Problem
• Ask what triggered this decision. Why I’m
considering it?
• Question the constraints in your problem
statement.
• Identify the essential elements of the problem.
• Understand what other decisions impinge on or
hinge on this decision.
• Establish a sufficient but workable scope for your
problem definition.
• Gain fresh insights by asking others how they see
the situation.

4. How do you define decision Problem?
• The best method for defining or redefining –
Start by writing down your initial assessment
of the basic problem, then question it, test
it, hone it.

5. Ask what triggered this decision. Why am I even
considering it?
• Immigrant

6. Cont…
• Triggers can bias your thinking.
• Because they can trap you into viewing the problem only
in the way it first occurred to you.
• For example; Your boss asks you to choose a new
mailing-list software package. The problem might not
actually be: What’s the best package to buy? The real
problem may be: What’s the best way to manage our
company’s direct-mail program?
• You may find that you don’t need new software at all.
You need to contract with an outside company to take
over the mailing effort.

7. Return
Question the constraints in your problem statement
• Problem definitions usually include constraints.
• For example; When should we conduct the three-
month market test of our new credit card offering
in the India?
• Constraints of given example are; (1) There will
be a market test, (2) It will last three months, and
(3) It will be in the India.
• Often, such constraints are useful – they focus
your choice and prevent you from wasting time.