Alex Osborn developed with Sidney Parnes the Creative Problem Solving Process and set up the Creative Education Foundation at Buffalo. One of the people who attended the training was Min Basadur who worked at P&G. In what could be termed a brainstorming meeting (using tools influenced by the creative problem solving training), P&G developed an effective response to Colgate’s introduction of a green striped Irish Spring. Basadur used “How might we” repeatedly to reframe the problem until they had the right problem to solve. They also assembled a diverse group separately to break through the patent challenges facing them.
Charles Warren from Google talks about the “How Might We?” approach that can lead you through any design challenge and references Basadur:
‘How might we’ enables people to frame problem definitions as challenges. Every challenge or constraint can be framed as a “How might we” question.
