We follow the sound of a deep whistling “vrrrrrm” wind noise, speculating as to its source; turning torso (“how annoying to live there with that”), some old ship parts installed at the top of a bank, street furniture… As we approach Västra Hamnen we discover it’s the sound of the gale blowing through the rigging of boats in the small harbour, there.

Later, between buildings, the wind makes it difficult to walk. We let Alve out to enjoy the force of it. He seems to like the power assist when running downwind.

We’re in the supermarket dressed for the mountains. Or the high seas.

I’m deeper into Wish I was here. Reading his thoughts on writing, particularly weird writing or writing weird, take me back to reading The sunken land begins to rise again. Always so close to some sort of meaning but never getting there. So much that is metaphor, but for what purpose? A podcast I listened to mentions a medium which prompts a connection to Back to black. Ghosts, edge-lands, weirdness adjacent to the ordinary, the weirdness of the ordinary.

Finished Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel. I’m not good at articulating what I like in a book but this really hooked me.

I picked up Wish I was here by MJ Harrison, again after finishing Headshot. Then read a few of his blog entries before bed time. I love his writing. I think Climbers is such a fantastic novel. Light I found quite hard work. His social media and blogging is great.

A problem well stated is a problem half solved - Charles Kettering

I first encountered the Problem Statement Canvas while working in government, probably in around 2016. It was presented to our team by colleagues in a strategy unit somewhere within the department. I think the idea came from somewhere in the Cabinet Office. I’ve used them ever since. For all manner of problems, mainly professional but occasionally personal.

Problem Statement Canvas

The canvas is a series of prompts that help you understand the current conditions of a piece of work or situation. The method I was taught was that you should

• start with the context box;
• then work through all the remaining, lower, boxes;
• these should all be filled with short bullet pointed lists, or similar;
• once you have completed the lower boxes, return to the top of the canvas and attempt to write a single sentence problem statement in the “Basic problem to be solved” box. This statement should follow the SMART format.

It’s often very difficult to distill all of the information to a single sentence problem statement. The advice I was given from the beginning was to just try and write something, anything. Then re-write it. And again, if necessary. Until you are happy that your statement properly describes the problem you face.

The canvas can be used at any time, in any phase of a piece of work. But they are particularly helpful when starting on a new piece of work. As a user researcher I’ve used them as the pre-cursor to a research plan. Recently, as a product manger, I’ve written them as the start point to a couple of new initiatives we’re focusing on this quarter.

• Primarily, I use the canvas to prompt myself to think systematically and thoroughly about a problem. The process is akin to a convergent-divergent diamond, you gather data then synthesise it into a simple statement.
• They are also a helpful way of gaining consensus on what you are working on within a small group of key people.
• Finally, they are easy to share, so are handy for communicating to a wider group.

The version I linked to above is a word doc. My favourite version is a Figma design file with a simple auto layout that re-scales nicely. But I know the canvas so well now that I don’t really need a template; the most recent one was just bulleted lists under a series of headers written on the notes app on my phone.