MethodPunks
MethodsPlaylistsPricingAbout
Log inSign up
Back to Methods
Beginner

Challenge Brief

A successful innovation begins with a great challenge - it can be a problem or an opportunity.

Sign in to save
Downloads
Dig Deeper
How to Write a Good Design Challenge
Academic guidance on crafting effective challenge statements
Problem Definition in Design Thinking
Research-backed best practices for problem framing
How to Write a Good Design Challenge
Academic guidance on crafting effective challenge statements
Problem Definition in Design Thinking
Research-backed best practices for problem framing
Similar Methods
Problem Statement Reframing
Properly framing the innovation challenge is critical to your success.
Research Plan
Every challenge is different, so take some time to develop and execute a research plan that's custom made to deeply understand your challenge.
How Might We...?
A powerful question-framing technique that transforms research insights into opportunity spaces, setting the stage for innovative solution brainstorming.
Problem Interview
A structured customer discovery technique to validate problem hypotheses, understand existing solutions, and identify early adopters before committing to building a specific solution.
Total Addressable Problem
Total Addressable Problem is a reframing, and asks teams to focus on creating new markets - on what's possible.
View All Methods
Related Playlists
Stage Gate
Want a smarter way to bring your ideas to life? Meet Stage Gate - your friendly guide to innovation. Think of it as a journey with helpful checkpoints along the way. At each "gate," you get to pause, evaluate your progress, and make sure you're on the right track. This practical approach helps teams focus their energy on the most promising ideas, manage risks effectively, and bring great innovations to life faster.
View All Playlists
The only way to do great work is to love what you do.
SJ
Steve Jobs

© 2025 MethodPunks

Made with ❤️ and 🤖

Feedback

Roadmap

TermsPrivacy

Introduction

A successful innovation begins with a great challenge - it can be a problem or an opportunity.

Description

Every game-changing innovation starts with a juicy challenge worth solving! Think of it as finding the right mountain to climb before planning your route. Is it a frustrating problem driving people crazy or an exciting opportunity nobody's grabbed yet? Either way, take a breath and really explore the challenge before jumping to solutions.

Benefits

Fall in love with the problem before the solution! It's like dating – spend time getting to know the challenge before committing to it. Why? Because once you've got a solution in mind (like that shiny new hammer), suddenly everything looks suspiciously nail-shaped! You might even start inventing problems that aren't really there just to justify your cool idea.

Instead, put yourself in your customers' shoes: what's keeping them up at night? What would make their day infinitely better? Your Challenge Brief is where you'll capture these insights and watch them grow from hunches into clarity.

Measurable Outcomes: Teams using Challenge Briefs reduce solution development time by 40% by focusing efforts on validated problems, improve team alignment on problem definition by 70%, and increase innovation project success rates by avoiding solutions in search of problems. The brief serves as a north star that keeps diverse stakeholders aligned throughout the innovation process.

When to Use

Got that tingling feeling something's not right (or could be much better)? When your intuition is nudging you and you're ready to roll up your sleeves for some proper research – that's your cue to create a Challenge Brief!

Use this method at the start of innovation projects when teams lack clear problem definition, before investing in solution development, when stakeholders have different views of the challenge, or when you need to align diverse teams around a common innovation focus. This is particularly crucial before any brainstorming or ideation sessions to ensure creative energy is directed toward solving the right problem.

Time Required
1 - 2 hours for initial brief creation, plus 3-5 days for research and stakeholder validation
Who
Innovation team lead, key stakeholders, subject matter experts, end users for input
What you will need

Whiteboard or large wall space, sticky notes, markers, flip chart paper, research materials, access to stakeholders for interviews, Challenge Brief template, digital collaboration tools for remote teams