Problem Statement

Module 1 * Part 1

The purpose of your pitch is to solve a problem. Whether it is a problem from a client, a funder or a victim, you need to clearly identify what the problem is that you are trying to solve before proceeding with a solution. In the act of identifying a problem, you need to articulate exactly what the problem is. You can do this with a "problem statement".

The problem statement is a sentence that identifies the following information:

  • The community: the setting of your problem
  • The victim: the person or people who suffer from the problem
  • The situation: the context in which the problem happens
  • The harm: the negative effects of the problem on the victim

    Example:
    At the Chinese University of Hong Kong people who work or study on campus do not have the means to have food delivered to their premise at their convenience which leads the waste of productive time as they need to leave their premise to get food.

      Here, we have the four components:

    • The community: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    • The victim: people who work or study on campus
    • The situation: they cannot have food delivered to their premises at their convenience
    • The harm: they waste productive time in going out to get food

      At this point, you do not need to identify the cause or the victimizer. That requires a separate analysis. Also, while you may disagree with whether "wasting productive time in going out to get food" is necessarily harmful, for the purpose of the pitch this is the problem that needs to be tackled

      Pay attention to the following language features:

    • Use a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence to contextualize your statement
    • Use active voice, with the victim as the subject of the sentence
    • Use simple present tense to articulate the problem because it has been happening and the situation has not changed.
    • Use a relative pronoun to connect the situation and the harm
    • You may provide a simple explanation of the harm using connecting words like "as" or "since"

    A careful articulation of the problem will provide you with a stronger focus, helping you concentrate on solving the problem as described, rather than dealing with something that is tangential or even unrelated.