Many of us first interact with problems in a primary-school mathematics class. If your experience is anything like mine, it might have gone like this: “Édouard has a swimming pool. One pump can fill the pool in two hours; the…
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Framing your problem well is of paramount importance, and yet, it’s easy to focus on a poor problem. Here are some guidelines to help you discover a good problem and stay on target. Think about a painting; the frame is a…
This entry is part of a multi-post case study. An effective way to become better problem-solvers is to use cases, so I’ll post problems that we have solved in my class so we can review them. (These are all real…
You embarked in a problem solving process, that requires fact gathering, analysis and communication. You might not know how long it’s going to take you and how much effort will be associated but be sure of one thing: it will…
Avoid describing processes in “how” trees… There are two ways to answer to a “how” question. The first is to describe one particular solution process to reply to the question (e.g. to the question “how to go from NYC to…
It’s like tennis, you can’t become a good problem-solver just by reading about it. You have to practice it. And just like tennis, you’ll become much better if you practice with others rather than by yourself.That’s why my graduate-level problem-solving…
When confronting a challenging problem, we tend to think that we know what the problem is and we move straight into “solving mode,” what my colleague Albrecht Enders calls jumping to solution. However, for complex problems, this perceived problem seldom…