Bernard Roth: What's the Real Problem?

So what I want you to understand is it's really easy. It's what we call in design thinking, reframing the problem. And the secret is to reframe it. And the question is, how do I do that? And the answer is, it's really, really simple. And the way I suggest you do it is you ask yourself what it would do for you if you solve the problem. Ask yourself what it would do for you if you solved the problem. And that is the question you want to ask yourself. So I'll give you an example where I totally failed. So I rented a car, and I drove up to the wine country, and eventually the car ran out of gas. And I pulled into the gas station, and I started to look for the release for the COVID to the gas tank. And I must have looked for 10 minutes in the glove compartment, every place normal designers would put it, and I couldn't find it. I was kind of frustrated. And then I noticed a similar car drove up for gas. So I went up to the lady and I said, I know this is a stupid question, but where is the release? She said, there is none. And so at that point, I realized what I was doing. I had framed the question to where the release is and why would I if I played my game, which I didn't, of course, but if I played my game, I would say, what would it do for me if I could find the release? Well, I'd be able to get the COVID open. So now the question is, how do I get the COVID open? Okay. And if you get the COVID open, the easiest way is walk over and open it up. Okay, so it's a silly, trivial question, but it, in fact, embodies the whole idea.