Skills
How Might We generator
Turn a customer problem into three to five How Might We statements, then into specific website ideas for each one, with where it goes and how you would test it.
When do you reach for How Might We generator?
Reach for it when a request arrives as a complaint or as somebody's pet solution, and before any session where a group is about to generate ideas. It needs no data and no tools, so it works on day one of a project.
What does it do with a problem?
It opens it up. A How Might We statement turns a problem into a question a group can answer: broad enough to invite ideas, narrow enough to constrain them, and containing no solution. How might we add a comparison table is a plan somebody already made. How might we help a visitor tell us apart from the alternatives in five seconds is a question worth a session.
Why six lenses?
Because a group left alone writes one statement five times. The lenses force genuinely different angles: amplify what already works, remove the friction entirely, do the reverse of what you do now, question the belief everybody shares, move the moment it happens to, or split the audience so different people get different answers. Each idea then carries where it goes and how you would test it, pushed across copy, layout, social proof, functionality and trust rather than staying in one category.
What do you walk away with?
Three to five statements, three to five ideas under each, and three recommendations: the quick win with real learning in it, the high-impact one that addresses the cause rather than the symptom, and the de-risking test, which is the cheap test that validates the assumption under the expensive idea before anyone builds the expensive idea.
What you copy
One block, ready to paste. Nothing else to install unless the block says so.
1---2name: hmw-generator3description: Turn a customer problem into How Might We statements and concrete4 website ideas for each. Use when you have a problem and need experiment5 directions rather than another discussion.6argument-hint: [the customer problem]7---89# How Might We generator1011A How Might We statement turns a problem into an opportunity that a group can12answer. Broad enough to invite ideas, narrow enough to constrain them, aimed at13something you can actually change.1415## 1. Understand the problem1617Gather, or ask for, the four things that make the rest possible:1819- which audience it affects20- what evidence there is, with the source21- where in the funnel it happens22- what it costs the business2324If a problem file already exists, read it rather than re-asking. Read the25audience notes too. Ideas written without knowing who they are for are how a26session ends with twelve variations of the same headline.2728## 2. Write 3 to 5 statements2930The formula:3132> How might we [verb] [audience] [outcome they want] [on the site]?3334A good one describes a user need, implies the site as the lever, opens up35possibilities, and contains no solution. "How might we add a comparison table"36is a plan someone already made.3738Six lenses, to get genuinely different statements rather than one statement39five times:4041| Lens | The question it asks |42| --- | --- |43| Amplify the good | how might we do more of what already works here? |44| Remove the bad | how might we take the friction out entirely? |45| Explore the opposite | what if we did the reverse of what we do now? |46| Question the assumption | what if the thing everyone believes is not true? |47| Change the moment | what if this happened at a different point in the visit? |48| Split the audience | what if different people need different answers? |4950## 3. Ideas for each statement51523 to 5 per statement, each with three lines:5354- **The idea.** One or two sentences, specific.55- **Where.** The page, component or flow it touches.56- **How we would test it.** The validation, named.5758Push across the categories rather than staying in one: copy and messaging,59layout and hierarchy, social proof, functionality, personalisation, friction60removal, trust signals. A list of seven copy tweaks means the lenses were not61used.6263## 4. Recommend three next steps6465- **Quick win.** Lowest effort with real learning in it.66- **High impact.** The one that addresses the cause rather than the symptom.67- **De-risking test.** The cheap test that validates the assumption under the68 expensive idea, before anyone builds the expensive idea.6970## Output7172Save it dated, one file per problem, so the ideas that did not get built are73still findable when the problem comes back. Close with what it connects to: the74related problems, the ideas ready to become hypotheses, and the ones that need75copy written first.7677Never invent evidence. If the impact number would strengthen the case and78nobody has it, write that it is missing and carry on.
Free to use in your own work, paid work included, no attribution required. Not for repackaging into a product you sell. Full terms.
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