Wicked Problems and How to Solve Them?

If you are faced with something unsolvable then you are likely to be dealing with something called a Wicked Problem. The term “wicked problem” was coined by two of the greatest design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber referring to problems that have many independent factors that are either incomplete or undefined and require a deep understanding of designers in order to be fixed. Problems like Fundamentalism, global warming, economic crisis, or aging societies are called Wicked Problems because we ourselves, our beliefs and values, and our habits are part of these problems and they cannot be solved in the traditional way, we need new approaches, novel ideas, and fresh minds to solve them. In this article, we will discuss what are Wicked Problems and how we can solve them.

Wicked Problems and How to Solve Them?

What are Wicked Problems?

Wicked Problem is a term referring to a problem that is very difficult to solve because of it having many independent factors that come into play, it requires a deep understanding of the topic, or it can not be solved with the current problem-solving approaches. The term “Wicked Problem” was coined by two of the greatest design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, Wicked problems are unconventional problems that require an innovative approach during the design thinking process in order to be solved.

Problems like Fundamentalism, global warming, economic crisis, or aging societies are called Wicked Problems because we ourselves, our beliefs and values and our habits are part of these problems and they cannot be solved in the traditional way, we need new approaches, novel ideas and fresh minds to solve them.

Characteristics of Wicked Problems

The wicked problems can be characterized by following 10 points:

1. There is no definite formulation for wicked problems.
2. Wicked problems do not have any stopping rule, hence there is no way to figure out if the solution you came up with is final.
3. Wicked problems do not have a solution in Boolean format (true or false) the solutions are only either good or bad.
4. It is not possible to test any solution to a Wicked problem immediately.
5. Wicked problems have one shot operation solutions. It is not possible to use trial and error method in solving a wicked problem.
6. Wicked problems do not have a defined number of potential solutions.
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique.
8. For every wicked problem, there is a synonym wicked problem.
9. Wicked problem has more that one explanation and these explanations vary from person to person
10. Wicked problems have more than a single explanation due to the individual perspectives.

How to Solve Wicked Problems?

Wicked problems are wicked since there is no single approach to solve them. There is no step by step method to solve a wicked problem but there are few strategies that a designer can use to tackle these problems and solve them. Following are the three strategies to solve a wicked problem:

1. Curiosity to maneuver

• In order to solve a wicked problem, the biggest hurdle is to firstly understand it. Now to completely understand a wicked problem, the best practice would be to ask why. A wicked problem is quite complex to solve and approach may vary from individual to individual, one thing that remains constant is curiosity towards the problem statement.
• To stick around until you find a solution, one must be curious enough for solving the problem. This is because the process of solving a wicked problem is lengthy and you may never reach an end, you will surely get stuck at multiple points and feel frustrated, here your curiosity towards the problem statement will help you maneuver and move ahead.

2. Divide the Problem statement

• A very common mistake many designers do during working with Wicked Problems is that since most of the Wicked Problems are of global significance, such as global warming, currency, etc. many designers tend to “disrupt” these industries without focusing on dividing the problem statement to smaller chunks of solvable issues.
• Make sure to segment the bigger problem into a smaller batch of problems and work on those individually and design backwards to your capabilities. Always remember, you may keep the bigger problem in your mind but working on one smaller problem at a time is essential for solving these Wicked Problems.

3. Empathy

• Empathy is a one stop solutions to many of designers problems but it is not easy to attain. It requires practice, the important thing around empathy is that when you listen with empathy, this may mean that the ideas you get a against your organization’s status quo.
• Most of the ideas that comes from listening with empathy in order to fix a Wicked Problem are quite uncomfortable and hard to implement and follow upon. This is one of the reasons why Wicked Problems are so Wicked. Make sure to listen with empathy with the target audience and act upon your findings in order to fix a Wicked Problem.

Conclusion

Wicked Problems refers to problems that have many independent factors that are either incomplete or undefined and requires a deep understanding of designers in order to be fixed. There is no fixed recipe or a roadmap for solving a Wicked Problem, but there are some practices or strategies that can be worked upon to fix these Wicked Problems. Wicked problems are unconventional problems that requires an innovative approach during the design thinking process in order to be solved. As much are these Wicked problems are unconventional problems that requires an innovative approach during the design thinking process in order to be solved. are tough to solve, solving them means disrupting an entire industry and changing the lives of many people for good. Make sure to follow the points we discussed in our article to solve your next Wicked problem.