Getting ready to develop a new project or launch a new product can feel overwhelming. While you and your team may have a final outcome in mind, you may not know where to start. This can present a roadblock in starting your research. In many cases, taking time to discuss and clarify the situation at hand can unlock the best path to your desired result. Identifying relevant stakeholders, clarifying your goals, and employing analytic methods can all be useful in understanding the scope of your project. In this module, we introduce you to one possible approach to modeling a new initiative: problem structuring.
You may be wondering, what is problem structuring? How do I use it? What if there are multiple problems in play?
These questions and more will be explored in this module. In the first section, you will learn what problem structuring is, and how to understand the nature and interconnection of the different factors influencing the problem you want to solve. Next, we introduce you to tools and techniques for applying problem structuring to your own work. In addition, we provide some case studies that utilize real-world examples to demonstrate the value of problem structuring across social science disciplines.
