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Home » Workshop: Understanding the Problem (hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University)

Workshop: Understanding the Problem (hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University)

PRESENTATION TITLE

Understanding the Problem with Karen Donoghue from HumanLogic, a workshop hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University as part of the Fall 2021 Jumbo Cafe: “Innovating with Impact” Workshop series.

DATE, LOCATION & FORMAT

October 6, 2021, at 12:00 pm EST. 60 minutes including interactive exercise and Q&A. Remote presentation conducted over Zoom with over 20 participants.

Jumbo Cafe Workshop: Understanding the Problem with Karen Donoghue from HumanLogic (hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University)

ABSTRACT

HumanLogic Principal and Tufts University alumna Karen Donoghue prepared and led a workshop titled “Understanding the Problem”. Ms. Donoghue led the workshop with Elaine Chen, Cummings Family Professor of the Practice in Entrepreneurship Director, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University in Boston, MA, USA.

In this interactive workshop, student entrepreneurs learned how to develop a great problem statement and how to build knowledge about the end-users who have this problem, with the end goal of creating the right solution for the right customer.

This workshop was part of the Fall 2021 “Jumbo Cafe: Innovating with Impact” series. Jumbo Cafes are educational workshops in innovation and entrepreneurship hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University in Boston, MA, USA.

PRESENTATION CONTENT

Some of the topics Karen covered in her workshop include:

  • How to develop a great problem statement, the syntax and semantics
  • Methods to build knowledge about end users who have this problem, to create the right solution for the right customer
  • What User-Centered Design means in theory and practice in the real world
  • What happens when a product mis-targets the market or deliver a solution to a non-problem
  • How well-written problem statements identify the problem you are solving – and not the solution
  • How problem statements can be useful to communicate a shared vision for stakeholders and team members
  • Developing a use case from a problem statement
  • Developing a solution to a use case
  • A case study for problem statement definition for a sample mobile application (Local Haze)
  • Persona definition and validation through user research
  • An example user research session (for a fictitious fitness tracker product)
  • An interactive practice exercise where participants draft and submit problem statements for feedback, and then re-submit for final review

After completing her slide presentation, Karen led an interactive exercise in drafting problem statements. Audience members entered their draft problem statements into the Zoom chat and then participated in a critique by Karen Donoghue and Professor Chen. After the completion of the interactive exercise, Karen participated in a Q&A session at the end of the workshop.

PRESENTATION VIDEO

PRESENTATION SLIDES

To view a PDF of the workshop slides, please visit this link.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

If you require an expert source, case study, or speaker for your next event or meeting visit our Speaking Engagements page or please email info [at] humanlogic [dot] com.