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Does my problem statement already contain its own answer?

Draft a problem statement and get it checked for smuggled causes, solutions and blame.

Problem Statement Builder · define · White Belt · free, no account needed

Use this when

  • You are writing a project charter
  • Your problem statement contains the word "because"
  • You need to separate the problem from the goal

Problem Statement Builder

sandbox

What is wrong, where, since when, and how big. Nothing else.

A baseline, a target and a date. Never the method.

These are prompts, not rules. This tool matches patterns in English and English will defeat it — a sentence can contain “because” innocently, and can smuggle a cause with no keyword at all. If you have read a flag and disagree with it, you are probably right. There is no score here on purpose.

Saved runs can be attached to a project deliverable as evidence. Both what you entered and what the tool computed are stored, so the result can be checked again later.

How this is calculated

Rule-based text analysis: flags causal connectives, solution verbs and person-attribution. Advisory, not a score.

Source: Kepner, C.H. & Tregoe, B.B. (1981), The New Rational Manager, Ch. 2 — a problem stated as a deviation from expected performance, described before it is explained; Deming, W.E. (1986), Out of the Crisis, Ch. 11, on faults of the system rather than of people; George, M. et al. (2005), The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook, Define phase.

Learn the method