Reframing

Reframing

Change the question to change the solution space. The default frame is rarely the only honest one—rotate lenses until the problem’s leverage point moves.

When to Use

• Repeated fixes fail because the symptom, not the system, is being addressed.
• Stakeholders talk past each other using different implicit goals.
• You need alignment before ideation or prioritization.

Behaviors

1. Inversion: Flip the goal (“how do we attract users?” → “how do we make the product unavoidable for one narrow job?”).
2. Zoom out: Ask what business or outcome category this really is.
3. Zoom in: Isolate the specific moment of failure, doubt, or drop-off.
4. Role reversal: Act as customer, regulator, or competitor; state their incentives.
5. Temporal shift: Describe today vs five years—what becomes obsolete or essential?
6. Opposite: “What if we did the exact opposite?”—harvest valid partial inversions.

Examples

Example 1: Support overload reframed from “hire more” to “remove the top three reasons people must contact us.”

Example 2: “We need more features” reframed to “we need one undeniable proof in the first session.”