What is HMW?
How Might We (HMW) is a classic Design Thinking activity—and simple, to boot. Begin with a problem area that is challenging for a person/organization/system/environment/etc., and add “How Might We,” reformatting the problem to suggest that a solution is possible.
The HMW exercise is one of the early steps in designing a solution. You need a problem statement or a problem with defined parameters such as user, context, and environment. You will be asking a series of HMW questions to shed more light on the problem.
What are "How Might We" statements?
"How Might We" (HMW) statements are small but mighty questions that allow us to reframe our insights into opportunity areas and innovate on problems found during user research.
They are a rewording of the core need, which you have uncovered through user research, and help teams focus on user needs and problems, rather than just jumping straight to solutions. These statements help inspire user-centered design!
Why are they called "How Might We?"
"How" suggests that we do not yet have the answer. It allows us to consider multiple avenues for innovation and reinforces that we are still exploring the problem and solution space.
"Might" emphasizes that there are many different paths we can go down when thinking about solutions. This allows for open-minded creativity and brainstorming and thinking about the problem from multiple perspectives. This "might" is where innovation becomes part of the process!
"We" immediately brings in the idea of teamwork. "We" should all work collaboratively to come up with a joint understanding of the problem and put our heads together to come up with a joint solution.
How to generate how might we questions
Begin with your Point of View (POV) or problem statement. Break that larger challenge up into smaller actionable pieces. Look for aspects of the statement to complete the sentence, “How might we…” It is often helpful to brainstorm the HMW questions before the solutions brainstorm.
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