Innovation Pipeline Desk / How to write an innovation problem statement
GUIDE: MANDATE BRIEF
How to Write an Innovation Problem Statement a Business Owner Will Sign
The mandate says to find new growth and new efficiency. Every vendor fits that sentence, so every vendor gets a meeting, and none of them gets a pilot.
A problem statement is the filter for everything after it. Written well, it lets you drop most candidates in a minute and tells a business owner exactly what they are signing up to test.
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The five fields
What every problem statement needs
The Mandate Brief uses the same five fields for every problem, so candidates can be scored against them the same way.
- The problem in the owner's words: one sentence, one process, no solution named.
- The owner: the business leader who asked for it and will sign for a pilot.
- The measure: a number the owner already tracks, so the success test needs no new reporting.
- The budget line: where pilot money comes from, and the ceiling the owner sets before scoring.
- The date: when the answer matters, which sets the kill date for any pilot.
A worked example
From a mandate to a signed problem
Mandate: improve patient flow. Problem statement: time from a discharge order to the patient leaving the building is too long on two medical units. Owner: VP Patient Flow. Measure: median minutes from order to departure, from the bed board. Budget line: patient flow operations, ceiling set by the owner. Date: before the winter census peak. This is a fictional example, not a client.
Common mistakes
What stalls a pipeline at this step
Naming a technology instead of a problem, for example use AI in claims. Writing a problem nobody owns. Picking a measure nobody tracks today. Leaving the budget to be found after the pilot works. Each one lets every vendor through the first screen.
Straight answers
Questions this guide answers.
- How many problem statements should an innovation program have?
- Three to five at a time. Fewer gives the pipeline too little to work on; more spreads business owners and budget too thin to start pilots.
- Who should own an innovation problem statement?
- The business leader who will run the result, not the innovation team. The innovation team writes it with them and keeps the pipeline moving.
- Should a problem statement name a technology?
- No. Name the process and the measure. Candidates of any kind, including internal ideas, are then scored against the same problem.
Start with one mandate
Request a Pipeline Health Check.
The Health Check report is yours to keep whether or not you go further. Sign the Sprint within 30 days of the report and the $2,500 comes off the Sprint in full.
Health Check $2,500. Pipeline Sprint $12,000. Then $3,500 a month.
The Health Check is a fixed price, returned 10 business days after the kickoff call. The Sprint runs six weeks. The Run is month to month with 30 days notice, and covers 10 new scored candidates a month, board upkeep and the monthly report.