Narrowing Our Problem Space - #Blog3

This week was a real turning point for us. After starting with a very broad challenge around social belonging among teenagers, we had to do something that sounds simple but is actually very hard: focus.

As part of our design process, we filled out a user-centered template- who our user is, what they need, what challenges they face, what solutions already exist, and our How Might We questions. Instead of giving us instant clarity, it actually created more “noise” and forced us to confront questions we hadn’t fully defined before.

We found ourselves asking:Are we dealing with group vs. individual?Individual vs. group?Or maybe group vs. group?

Each direction leads to a very different understanding of the problem and a completely different product.

After a lot of discussion, we decided to focus on a situation where a tight-knit group needs to welcome someone new from the outside. We want to explore how a group of kids can learn to include someone who is a bit different.

But this choice opened even more questions:Do these kids even have motivation to include someone new?Should our product try to create that motivation?Or should we give them tools assuming some motivation already exists?And what about the kids who do want to help but are afraid of becoming outsiders themselves?

We don’t have all the answers yet - and that’s okay. This week wasn’t about solving the problem; it was about understanding it more deeply. In a way, narrowing the space actually expanded our thinking.

At the same time, we began reading academic research to better understand the psychological and social dynamics of group behavior in adolescence. We also started preparing our presentation for next week, which pushed us to explain and defend why our chosen angle matters.

Overall, this week was full of confusion, reframing, and re-alignment- but it left us with a clearer direction and a renewed sense of purpose for what comes next.

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