---
description: >-
  Stating your challenge in the form of a 'how might we.... ?' question helps
  people to connect with the problem frame in order to begin to solve for it.
---

# Challenge Statements

A challenge statement is a description of your problem in a way that you are able to solve for it. It speaks to the urgency of the problem, is a call-to-action for others to be involved and inspires hope for change.

{% embed url="https://marsdd-1.wistia.com/medias/chu9jkd2kb" %}
Crafting a Challenge Statement by Alex Ryan
{% endembed %}

## Effective vs. Ineffective Challenge Statements

A good challenge statement is:

* A ‘how-might-we’ question
* Provides context, importance, and urgency to work on solving the problem
* Points to complexity and barriers, but also opportunity and hope
* Obviously actionable&#x20;
* Indicates how you will know when interventions and solutions work: early signs and signals, evidence, metrics: indicators and measures
* It’s iterative, a starting hypothesis – start anywhere and go from there

An ineffective challenge statement is presenting the problem as:

* Really a solution
* Just a symptom(s)
* Only a collection of problems lumped together
* Too far downstream towards solutions and not sufficiently upstream towards root causes
* Basically, about moving the problem onto someone else’s plate

### Examples:

| &#xD;**Effective Challenge Statements**                                                                                                                                               | **Ineffective Challenge Statements**                                                       | Why are these challenge statements ineffective?                                                                |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| How might we leverage existing social capital to address increasing rates of loneliness in the Canadian senior population?                                                            | How do we get seniors to connect more to their community?                                  | Sends a solution by assuming that seniors should connect to their community as the way forward.                |
| <p>How might we create market and policy conditions that enable automated vehicles to support safe, equitable, and efficient transportation models for Toronto and</p><p>Ontario?</p> | How do we use congestion pricing to efficiently manage the adoption of automated vehicles? | Not upstream enough towards root causes of adoption of automated vehicles and efficiency. Proposes a solution. |
| &#xD;How might municipal procurement be designed to increase impactful innovation procurement?                                                                                        | How might innovators better position themselves to be procured by municipalities?          | Moves the problem onto someone else’s plate.                                                                   |

{% hint style="info" %}
### &#xD;Instructions: How to develop a challenge statement

**1) Identify sets of tension**\
What are the main sets of tensions in your [wicked questions ](http://www.liberatingstructures.com/4-wicked-questions/)on your complex problem? That is, what are the underlying tensions in the paradoxes you have identified? What makes this problem so difficult? Come up with 2 or 3 sets of tensions.

**2) Identify underlying assumptions**\
What are your underlying assumptions? That is, what are the assumptions you are making in the tensions that you identified?&#x20;

_Identifying the tensions and assumptions in the problem you're trying to solve helps you to better understand the problem frame._&#x20;

**3) Write a challenge statement**\
Now, describe your problem as a challenge statement, and write it down. This can be used as a starting point for systems mapping, but also as the hypothesis of your theory for change. \
\
Use the format of "**How...might... we.... ?"** to craft your statement. \
\
Click the link below for more information on drafting your theory for change.
{% endhint %}

{% content-ref url="../../being/value-of-social-innovation-labs/theory-of-change" %}
[theory-of-change](../../being/value-of-social-innovation-labs/theory-of-change)
{% endcontent-ref %}
