Publications
Publications
- 2018
What Is Your Problem? The Importance of ‘Problem Storming’ for Crossing Knowledge Boundaries
By: Hila Lifshitz - Assaf
Abstract
In this study, I focus on the emergent processes and practices enacted when using crowdsourcing to solve R&D problems that experts are challenged with. While the literature on crowdsourcing focuses on the online process, this study looks at the full process that takes place from the origination of a problem in the hands of domain experts until its solution stage by crowds to investigate why some R&D challenges are solved by crowdsourcing while others are not. I conducted a multi-case study of each of NASA’s 14 strategic R&D challenges, using both quantitative and qualitative data from the online open innovation platforms and NASA problem-solving processes. I find a hidden process of “problem storming” that took place before opening the R&D problems to be solved by crowds, which played a critical role in reaching successful solutions. “Problem storming” is a process of questioning the current problem formulation before posting it online for crowds to solve—not only reorganizing the problem to be clear and accessible for crowds but deeply reformulating it, resulting in a different problem formulation from the original one. I detail various problem-storming practices and their impact on the solving process. Scholars have long believed that the way a problem is formulated is crucial to the way it is solved (Newell and Simon, 1972). However, since problem formulation and problem solving are two intertwined processes, our knowledge of problem-formulation processes has hardly advanced in recent decades. Distributed ways of organizing for innovation such as crowdsourcing allow us to shed light on the problem-formulation process as it is decoupled from the solving process. This study contributes to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind successful distributed innovation forms of organizing. It also contributes to the classic literature on problem formulation by clearly illustrating the impact of various formulation processes on solving. For practitioners, this study has significant implications since while it is accepted that the ability to reformulate problems is crucial, there are no clear reformulation processes and a thirst for guidance.
Keywords
Innovation; Nasa; Problem Solving; Problem Formulation; Knowledge Boundaries; Innovation and Invention; Research and Development; Problems and Challenges
Citation
Lifshitz - Assaf, Hila. "What Is Your Problem? The Importance of ‘Problem Storming’ for Crossing Knowledge Boundaries." Working Paper, April 2018.