I don’t think of creating a blog post like this one. And it will be very short compared to my posts. Why? Because it is so obvious.


A: So, how to find problems? Huh, what a lame thing! Why is it important to find problems?

B: Because to find the solutions and work on them, buddy. If you want some improvements in your life, you should solve some problems.

A: I don’t want any improvements in my life. My life is good, as it is.

B: If you don’t want to get rid of your current pains/sufferings, I have no word to say.

A: Wait a minute, you say I can get rid of all my sufferings right?

B: No, I said you can get rid of the current sufferings.

A: Are you mocking with me? God damn it.

B: No. Suffering is one of the invariants in this life, like change. If you get rid of one suffering in your life, it leads to another suffering. 😄

A: Still I am feeling you are mocking with me. Don’t talk as you were Buddha or something. If you don’t show me a real thing, getaway!

B: I am not talking spiritually or physiologically. But the topic is a little bit conceptual, unfortunately. If you have pain about something, feel the pain, accept it knowing there is a problem hidden behind it. If you tackle the problem, you can get rid of the current pain. That is it.

A: NO more bullshit, get away from my sight!


While writing the dialog above, I have enjoyed, totally I have forgotten what I want to talk about. Problem-solving right? You can ask me where the topic is popped up. Nowadays I am reading and working on TRIZ. I have attended several patent workshops using brainstorming and brainwriting in my current company. I cannot say that the methods are useless, but I should admit that they are ineffective. I don’t want to dive into the happenings in the workshops like staring each other’s eyes asking what the hell we are doing here. I would like to use TRIZ in these workshops, so I am volunteered to create a process for the workshops.

I have read several books on TRIZ and identified the process as simple as possible. I could offer using ARIZ or other algorithms, there will be lots of people not knowing anything about TRIZ or other methodologies about creativity and problem-solving. Please see the steps I identified for the problem solving as below:

  1. Keep in mind the trends of technical evolution
  2. Model the problem and the system
  3. Find the tradeoffs
  4. Find the contradictions regarding the tradeoffs
  5. Map the resources
  6. Formulate the ideal final result
  7. Choose the primary contradiction to solve
  8. Develop the solution in many cycles. If you are familiar with the TRIZ tools, use them.
  9. Check the trends of technical evolution
  10. Check organization procedures and rules
  11. Put the solution in the organization catalog

I will not lie that I have copied the items from the book Simplified TRIZ. As I said, I have read several books on the topic. I am trying to create a simple procedure for the people who aren’t familiar with TRIZ, and it was already there, why should I not take it as it is? Why not to stand on the shoulders of giants?

But the procedure starts with the assumption that there is a problem already. But it is not. We are forming teams in the workshops with the slogan “Hey, we are inventing today!” without having a problem. We expect them to make an invention or something within 3 or 4 hours. At least they should come up with the idea and the solution. I guess you can think of the people looking at each other with questioning eyes. Which problem?

When we talk about making an invention or writing a patent, people think a magnificent thing should be done or a thing should be invented no one could not ever dream or something. But in this way, even the problem itself cannot be written. If we want to focus on the problems as TRIZ suggested in the first place, people tend to have a different attitude. Some of them are very optimistic, when it is asked whether they have a problem with their process or the product they are working on, they cannot produce or detect any kind of problems. Others tend to complain all the time, from their perspective, everything is a problem. They are listing everything!

I cannot hold myself to apply TRIZ to this problem also. The problem of finding the problems. The system can be depicted as below:


Fig. 1: Current System


when trying to find a problem, especially as a team, so many emotional factors come in and create a disturbance in the environment and decline the ideality of the system as I described below shortly above. Problem finding is still an intellectual process for us. It needs focus and time, it should be more natural and become a reflexion for us. If the emotions are in the play, why not list them as a resource and why not use them? I would like to use the pain as a mediator in the system:


Fig. 2: Proposed System


Is it quite easy and obvious right? The thing is making something internal takes quite some time. Maybe I am a little dumb it took quite some time to understand the fact in that life. Or sometimes we cannot see the obvious ones. Let’s write the Step 0 for our procedure as it is done for thermodynamics:

  1. Feel the pain and find the problem hidden behind! 😄

References