How to write a product problem outline
As the product world has evolved over the last few years, outcome focus and idea discovery have taken over the way product managers lead their work. Heavily written product requirement documents have become a thing of the past, and a new way of outlining problem statements has emerged.
They key to a good problem outline is to make it easy to for everyone to understand. It shouldn’t require several pages to get to the point of what has to be done, and most important, why the decision was made in the first place.
This focuses on the problem, not the solution. Instead of writing down “we need blue buttons,” focus on what the issue at hand actually is: improving accessibility in your product. This changes the perspective of the issue at hand, and gives you a more holistic view to start approaching the problem.
Most importantly, it doesn’t set a solution from the beginning. You know there is a problem (accessibility) but you aren’t defining how to solve it just yet.
