case study problem solving

Case studies from Bulletproof Problem Solving

The book has more than 30 case studies. we show two simple ones here to pique your interest in learning more..

Exhibit 1.5

The company also evaluated whether it could achieve the same result by reducing its fixed overheads or taking manufacturing in-house. With few costs other than a lean staff and rent, the first was not an option. With limited current cash resources, investing in its own extremely expensive manufacturing presses and assembly also didn’t make sense (step 3). On balance a small price increase to restore unit margins was worth the risk (step 6 and 7).

This kind of financial tree is particularly useful for solving problems that involve monetary trade-offs of alternative strategies. You can use it to track almost any kind of business problem.

Case Studies

This case study outlines the importance of problem solving skills in the manufacturing industry. It will introduce students to different strategies for tackling problems, and incorporates an interactive choose-your-own-adventure activity. Videos, interviews, and open-ended questions further engage students and stress good problem solving skills in the workplace.

The Improving Observation Skills case study introduces students to how the brain handles incoming information and how human attention and perception can be very different from reality. It addresses a variety of distractions in the manufacturing workplace and provides tips on how to manage these distractions. The case study emphasizes the importance of observation skills in shift changes, in workplace safety awareness, and for a company’s financial stability.

A Model for Case Analysis and Problem Solving

ABOUT THIS CONTENT

Table of Contents

Why the Case Approach

The most effective way for learning to take place is to actually be in real situations, make decisions, deal with the consequences of those decisions, and learn from our real mistakes. Nothing will ever replace learning from experience. Cases (which involve real situations although names may be changed) allow us to "simulate" real life situations when we don’t have the luxury of having years of experience. Cases allow us (to some degree) to live with real situations, make decisions, and feel the consequences. Like scientists in a laboratory, students of management use case problems and experiential exercises as "laboratory" opportunities to experiment with real organizations in the classroom setting.

Cases attempt to reflect the various pressures and considerations managers confront in everyday organizational life. By using complex real world problems as a focus, cases are designed to challenge you to develop and practice skills that will be appropriate to the practical problems you will face in your career.

The case method is based on the learning principle that learning occurs most when people teach themselves, through their own struggles. You will gain greater understanding and improved skills in judgment when you work through a problem than if you listened passively to a lecture. Similarly, there will be greater learning if you "use" a theory than if you just heard about it. Therefore cases have two basic uses:

• Helping us learn how to apply theories to real situations
• Helping us learn how to solve real problems

Like real situations cases center around an array of partially-ordered, ambiguous, seemingly contradictory and reasonably unstructured facts, opinions, inferences and bits of information, data, and incidents out of which you must provide order by selectively choosing which bits to use and which to ignore. In real life others won’t do this for us. As in real life situations, it is unlikely that any two people would assemble the data or make inferences identically. You will have to work within the limitations inherent in evidence and arrive at internally consistent interpretations. Experiencing the process of learning this way may be frustrating and confusing, but it is also practical and realistic.

Cases, as in real management situations, require you to work with the "as is" of reality, not the "should be" of theory. Like managers you will have to exercise judgment which can be improved by discussion and consultation with others. However, note that like the manager, you will seldom be sure before your decision is made and often after it is made, that you have made the right or "best" decision. Like any manager, you will approach cases under time pressure, on the basis of limited facts, and in the face of many unknowns. You will approach cases along with other people who like you have idiosyncrasies and limitations, and different opinions.

In summary, cases have a number of benefits:

• They allow us to develop skill in thinking clearly about ambiguous, unstructured situations using incomplete information;
• They help us to develop skills at recognizing what information is important and what is missing
• They help us to develop concise, reasonable, and consistent action plans;
• Help you to identify implicit models and assumptions, values and goals you use every day
• They provide an opportunity to develop skills in presenting (written and oral) our ideas to people and to groups; to influence and persuade others
• Improve your ability to predict behavioral outcomes-yours and others

Your Responsibilities

Little can be learned from a case without preparing it carefully and discussing it with others. Cases are not designed to present you with a right answer which you can memorize in the hopes that you will remember it if you ever encounter a similar situation. Similarly you won’t gain much from listening to what others think is the right answer. The learning comes from actively participating in the search for solutions. Cases are the raw materials that permit simulation in the classroom of actual discussions carried on informally among managers.

Preparation : Cases require more preparation and active participation than most class activities. How much you get out of a case discussion depends heavily on how much effort you put into preparing it before class. Many students confronting cases for the first time are overwhelmed; they see so many factors that come into play. Facts are confusing and ambiguous and often incomplete. This guide is intended to help you walk through the critical steps.

Informal Discussion Groups: After preparing a case by yourself, it can really help to meet with a group of other students to talk about a case before class. This will give you a chance to test your ideas on others and learn about other perspectives about the case.

Participating in Class Discussions: The purpose of the class discussion is to test others ideas so that together students can reach a richer and deeper understanding of the case. The role of the discussion is to moderate and create an environment in which contributions of individual students build on one another to understand the problem more fully. The instructor’s role is not to answer. The instructor may highlight, synthesize the issues and help shape the discussion.

The quality of the class discussion depends on the quality of the students’ preparation and participation in class. The class should be considered a team of colleagues that has been asked to work together to solve a challenging problem. This requires good team members to push ideas and support them. Good class also requires an emphasis on listening; others will raise ideas you hadn’t thought of and you should be prepared to change your mind and incorporate new ideas when you find them persuasive.

Try to have your ideas build on the comments of others. Don’t be afraid to be challenged or to be wrong. Sometimes students leave a class discussion discouraged because many issues and arguments that were raised that they had not considered before class. Remember that no case would be worth discussing if it were simple and straightforward enough for you to have figured it out on your own.

The classroom should be a place where you can test ideas and learn from each other. Finally enjoy yourself. There should be a lot of satisfaction in struggling with a complex problem and through your efforts, coming to a better understanding of it.

Preparing a Case: Six Steps for Problem Analysis

The checklist is presented as a framework for diagnosis, problem-solving, and managerial action taking. Note that few if any situations that you will experience will require that you consider every element listed here. Management is a dynamic, ongoing process that never takes place as sequentially or rationally as this list would imply. In most real-world situations, as opposed to case discussions in class, you already know a great deal about the people and prior experiences that are relevant. In addition, events never turn out exactly as you anticipate them.

Step 1: Comprehend the Case Situation: Data Collection, Identify Relevant Facts

Most cases require at least two readings, sometimes more; the first time through should involve familiarizing yourself with the basic situation; you may be given some guide questions to help you and you also might think about why the case was assigned now. There are some standard questions that you might keep in mind as you read the case:

• What are the key issues in the case; who is the decision maker in the case; is there a critical decision?
• What is the environment in which the key people operate; what are the constraints on their actions; what demands are imposed by the situation?
• Are solutions called for?
• If you had the chance to talk to critical people in the company, what would you want to know?
• What are the actual outcomes of the current situation-productivity, satisfaction, etc; how stable are present conditions?
• What are the "ideal" outcomes; what is an ideal "future" condition?
• What information is lacking; what are the sources of the available information?

Managers and students rarely have complete information and must rely on inferences. Be prepared to make creative assumptions; good analysis goes beyond identifying the relevant facts in the case. If some facts aren’t given, figure out what you can assume they are.

Rereading: After the first reading, try to formulate several plausible courses of action and explanation for the data in the case. Imagine yourself as various key people in the case and figure out why you (as the person in the case) might have acted as he/she did, or what you would do. Think about the consequences if you are wrong.

Using evidence and numbers: One of the most difficult problems in preparing a case is sorting through the mass of information and evidence. Often cases involve considerable background information of varying relevance to the decision at hand. Often cases involve conflict with different actors providing selective information and courses of action to support their claims. As in real life, you must decide what information is important and what isn’t and evaluate apparently conflicting evidence.

As in real life, you will be faced with a lot of information but perhaps not exactly the information you need. It is not uncommon to feel paralyzed by all the available information; it is difficult to identify the key information after the first reading. You should be slightly skeptical about the information presented or the interpretation placed on it by various actors in the case. You won’t have time to question all evidence in the case but if the evidence is critical, you might ask yourself what it really implies and whether it is as compelling as it seems.

As you read the case keep in mind:

• remember that all behavior is caused, motivated, and goal-directed; behavior may see strange, or "irrational" but you can assume it makes sense to the actor
• separate fact from opinion; distinguish between what people say vs. do
• it might be possible to get more information about the case (eg. the industry) but for the most part you will be asked to do your best with the information available
• separate symptoms from underlying causes
• avoid judgments; avoid premature solutions

Step 2: Defining the Problem

What is the critical issue or problems to be solved? This is probably the most crucial part of the analysis and sometimes the hardest thing to do in the whole analysis. Perhaps the most common problem in case analysis (and in real life management) is that we fail to identify the real problem and hence solve the wrong problem. What we at first think is the real problem often isn’t the real problem .

To help in this stage here are some questions to ask in trying to identify the real problem:

• where is the problem (individual, group, situation) why is it a problem; is there a "gap" between actual performance and desired performance; for whom is it a problem and why
• explicitly state the problem; are you sure it is a problem; is it important; what would happen if the "problem" were left alone"; could doing something about the "problem" have unintended consequences?
• what standard is violated; where is the deviation from standard
• what are the actual outcomes in terms of productivity and job satisfaction; what are the ideal outcomes
• how do key people feel about the problem and current outcomes
• what type of problem is it ?(individual, relationships, group, intergroup, leadership/motivation/power, total system)
• how urgent is the problem? How important is the problem relative to other problems?
• assess the present conditions:
• What are the consequences; how high are the stakes; what factors must and can change?
• for the organization (costs and profits; meeting obligations; productivity)
• for the people (personal and financial rewards; careers; satisfaction and growth)
• How stable are present conditions?
• What information is lacking?
• What are the sources of the available information?

Traps in this stage :

• suggesting a solution prematurely-stating a problem while implying a solution
• stating problems in behavioral (personal) terms, not situational terms
• not explicitly stating the problem-assuming "your" problem is "the" problem
• blindly applying stereotypes to problems; accepting all information at face value; making premature judgments; multiple causality
• most crucial at this step is to avoid suggesting a solution
• confusing symptoms with causes; differentiating fact from opinion; prematurely judging people and actions
• stating the problem as a disguised solution (eg. Hardesty’s failure is due to his not visiting purchasing agents)

Step 3: Causes

Once you have identified the key problem(s), try to find the causes here. Most critical here is avoiding solutions, and avoiding blaming or judging people. Also

• don’t quit at the most obvious answer-try playing devil’s advocate; put yourself in the other person’s shoes
• accept the multiple causality of events
• there may be a number of viable ways to fit the data together; explore as many as you can; go past the obvious
• there is a great tendency to evaluate behavior as good or bad; I care about why it occurred; judgments leads to a poor analysis focusing on justification for the evaluation
• the concern is not whether behavior is good or bad but why it occurred and its consequences
• be careful about hindsight; actors in the case usually don’t have access to outcomes when they act so avoid "Monday Morning Quarterbacking"-consider what actors in the case are reasonably likely to know or do
• as before, avoid premature solutions and premature judgments

Step 4: Generating Alternative Solutions (not all assignments will call for this)

In thinking about a context for generating alternatives, think about:

• what are the decision-maker’s sources of power in the situation? (legitimate, reward, punishment, expert, referent)
• what are possible leverage points (changing technology such as machines, processes, product designs; changing organizational structure; changing reward systems, job descriptions education, changing personnel, changing culture)
• can individual behavior be changed (education, training, reward systems, job description, etc.)
• what are the constraints on the solution? (time, money, organizational traditions, prior commitments, external realities, legal etc)
• what are the available resources (time, money, people, existing relationships, power)
• should others be involved (in problem definition, data collection, generating alternatives, implementing solutions, monitoring and assessing realities)
• In this stage it is important to avoid reaching for a solution too quickly; be creative here and put yourself in the case. Try living with various alternatives that you are thinking about; what would be the impact on you and on others. Be sure to think about the costs and benefits of each alternative.

Step 5: Decision (note that not all assignments will call for a solution)

In considering the alternatives generated above you need to be clear on the criteria you will use to evaluate them. Some possible criteria include:

• does the alternative address the critical aspect of the problem? What are your objective? Be specific.
• what are the intended consequences; what are some unintended possible consequences; how will your decision improve the situation
• what is the probability of success; what are the risks; what happens if the plan fails
• what does the plan depend on? What are the costs? What power and control is needed?
• who would be the "change agent" Does he/she have the power, skills, knowledge to be successful
• is the "solution" consistent with organizational realities

Remember that there is no one "elegant" solution; all solutions have costs and benefits ; identify pros and cons of each alternative; evaluate relative to goals; look at main and side effects you may have to make inferences and judgments; do this as long as you have good reasons for your inferences Choose alternative which best meets the criteria. The decision might not be accepted by those involved so you may have to choose a more acceptable one. You might want to rank order your alternatives according to how well they meet the criteria used. as you think about action, put yourself into the case; try to project living with the consequences

Step 6: Taking Action and Following Up

In thinking about implementation you want to think about these areas:

• what are leverage points for change-technology, reward systems, work relationships, reporting relationships, personnel changes
• what are the decision maker’s sources of power: legitimate, reward, expert, referent, etc?
• what are the constraints on a solution: time, money, organizational policies, traditions, prior commitments, external realities
• does culture have to change; what historical relationships must be respected
• implementation-will people resist change; is change being reinforced; is a new stability developing
• monitoring changes-are further changes necessary; are costs and benefits of changes as expected
• make sure you have thought about the ramifications of implementing the plan; how will you address them

Action Plans : provide options for meeting specific objectives should include: a brief description of the plan, costs, benefits, drawbacks

Some simple models are helpful in thinking about implementation. One involves thinking about implementation as involving three stages:

• Unfreezing: Making sure those affected feel the need for change
• Change: introducing the change
• Refreezing: Reinforcing the new behaviors

General Reminders/Check List

• remember you will never have enough information!
• the most critical aspect of case analysis may be "identifying the problem"
• you will never be sure you have identified the real problem
• there is rarely one "right" answer-different answers may be somewhat right

Accept that cases and managerial situations involve:

• ambiguous situations multiple causality inadequate information
• no elegant solution
• acknowledge that personal values play a role in case analysis
• no one (including the instructors) can "solve" the case
• try to imagine "living" with the problem and your recommendations

Try to avoid:

• blindly applying stereotypes to problems accepting information at face value
• confusing symptoms with problems making premature evaluations
• judging behavior-we assume no one is "good" or "bad"; labelling people as such is an easy way to dispense with problems of trying to figure out why someone does what he does
• don’t assume you are so much smarter or better informed than managers you observe or read about that you can readily solve problems they have been dealing with for years
• managers involved may understand their problems better than you do and act the way they do for reasons that are sound to themselves

Writing Tips

• while it is critical to follow the above advice on case analysis, much of this analysis may not appear in your paper. The analysis is required to generate material for your memo but may not necessarily appear in it
• think carefully in your writing who your audience is
• assume your reader is a little dense; write in a form that is easy to digest-good introduction, subheadings, manageable paragraphs, clear topic sentences, clear transitions
• provide a strong introduction; give your reader a reason to read the analysis; give the reader the "benefits"
• in a memo, you can only convey one or two main points; make sure the reader knows what they are; make sure your introduction provides a clear "road map" for where you are going; reinforce this in the conclusion
• use models/theories in your analysis, but you may not necessarily "leave" these "tools" in your document.

Final Comments

Case teaching is a lab experience. It is low risk and participative. It does not provide "how to" or surefire techniques. Students sometimes express dissatisfaction with cases. "Information is ambiguous, redundant, irrelevant; the issue isn’t stated clearly; the instructor isn’t directive enough; we never know the "right" answer; the instructor should lecture more."

These comments are legitimate. But for the most part the difficulties associated with case teaching stem from real situations themselves. These are the same dilemmas you will face as managers.

More Related Posts

• Case Hints – The Case Method
• Case Analysis Template
• 5 Forces Framework
• Case Hints – Some Guidelines for Case Analysis & Number Crunching
• Case Hints – Marketing Management Case Analysis

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3 Case Studies: Discovering Market Problems and Their Solutions 

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Products should solve market problems. Otherwise, all that’s been created is something neat, not something useful (or profitable). 

How do companies evaluate market problems and build the right solution? The answer: listening and research. But, what does it look like to actually do this work? 

The following are three case studies involving how organizations discovered market problems and designed effective solutions. 

Case Study #1

The market problem: career path uncertainty.

Project Management Institute (PMI), is a not-for-profit professional association, solving the problem of career path uncertainty. 

While many of PMI’s members are advanced in their careers, there is a large segment just starting their project management journey.

PMI noticed an emerging market problem, and that was the early-career project management professionals segment was swimming in a sea of information and in an ocean of uncertainty.

This segment knew they wanted to advance their careers, but getting there was cumbersome and ambiguous. Of course, they could wander around Google search engine results, but what information mattered or, more importantly, what information was wrong?

No career trajectory is entirely linear, and there is no standardized approach to reaching the next milestone. This is the problem.

Market Problem Discovery Through Lemonade Stands

PMI has chapters around the globe. Some are small and others large, but they all have the same mission: to prepare organizations and individuals at every stage of their career journey to work smarter.

It was these chapters that the organization started hearing requests for more help finding reputable resources for those just starting their project management careers. In response, product manager Kerry Brooks deployed teams to set up lemonade stands at events and outside chapter meetings to ask questions.

The qualitative feedback they received helped them design a solution.

After they built concepts and landing pages, they were able to A/B test messaging and conduct surveys and better understand the difference between their “say data” and “do data.”

“Say data” is what people say they want and “do data” is how their audience acted when a solution was presented.

The qualitative and quantitative data helped them validate and launch their solution.

Market Problem Solution: PMI Navigator Career Platform

Users build a profile on this platform and select one to three near-term goals. Then, they receive a custom-built roadmap designed to lead them to their next career milestone.

The roadmap is full of actionable resources like events they should attend, podcasts they should listen to, books and articles they should read, etc. Once they complete a goal, they can move to the next.

This solution solved the problem of ambiguity by giving the users clear directions on what content was valuable and the next steps to take.

Case Study #2

The market problem: new lease accounting standards.

A lease is an agreement between a property owner and a person who wants to use the asset. So, lease accounting is the process of recording the financial impacts of leasing activities in accounting reports. 

During the last four years, the Financial Accounting Standards Board released new standards for this type of accounting. The problem was, current accounting software wasn’t able to accommodate these new standards. 

LeaseQuery was first to the scene with software that could manage these new standards. But, as with any product, being first isn’t a long-term competitive competency. So, they launched a market research strategy to help them expand their product to better serve their customers. 

Market Problem Discovery Through a Question Library 

Interviews are a high-value activity when it comes to uncovering unmet needs and trends. But, LeaseQuery takes a systematic approach to this work. Product manager Joy McCaffrey has created a bank of questions she pulls from to ensure consistency in her research efforts. 

She collects these ideas for questions during meetings, blogs and webinars, and she tags them based on their purpose. For example, she tags questions as exploratory, product-specific, market-specific, software-specific and company. 

She organizes interviews with customers, non-customers, channel partners and the target market. And, she structures every interview to include quantitative close-ended questions and qualitative open-ended questions. 

The pre-established question library gives her a variety of directions she can take the conversation while still providing a format to uncover themes and patterns efficiently. Through this work, she has discovered opportunities as well as disqualified ideas. 

Market Problem Solution: Launching New Products

In addition to solving the problem of not having lease accounting software that helps users navigate new stands,  these interviews inspired the company to expand its product offering in the future.

Case Study #3

The market problem: applying knowledge gained through training to real-world situations .

In May 2020, Pragmatic Institute launched the Pragmatic Alumni Community. 

But the work of building this community began a year prior when the leadership realized there was a market problem: alumni were looking for resources to help them apply their new knowledge to their job after completing a course. 

To begin to uncover more insights about this problem, the company hired the first director of community, Georgina Donahue. 

Georgina approached her work just like any product manager would (with understanding the market problem) because she said, “Community management is product management.”

Market Problem Discovery Through Internal and External Conversations 

The goal was to find where organizational objectives and alumni needs overlapped. Qualitative and quantitative research was used to discover this intersection. 

The challenge was that a community that members love won’t succeed if it doesn’t also support the company’s goals. When it comes to choosing what to invest in and what to cut, it’s hard to make a business case for something that isn’t fueling progress. 

Similarly, a community that is perfectly aligned with company goals but isn’t helpful to members will quickly become a ghost town.  

So, the research was designed to understand what features of a community would make training more valuable and to understand how it’d integrate into other organizational initiatives. 

Interviews were conducted with 20 internal stakeholders and 20 alumni, followed by a survey with 400 respondents.  

The team continues to survey and listen to the community to improve and add features to the platform. 

Market Problem Solution: No Question Left Behind

The research uncovered that both groups were interested in the practical application of theory. 

Of course, Pragmatic Institute wants students to have the support they need to put their training to work in their jobs, and students were seeking use cases. 

The community has a motto: “No Question Left Behind.” 

The PAC grew to 20,000 members in less than two years, and the fuel of that growth is peer-to-peer conversations. 

Community members can join cohorts based on areas of interest and industries, so conversations are always relevant. 

But most importantly, every question in the PAC is answered by professionals and peers who share their experience, examples, templates, resources and best practices. 

Are you looking to find the right solution to market problems?

We have a big course update to the course  Market,  which helps you gain a thorough understanding of your buyers and how they like to buy so you can build the product marketing strategies that deliver results.  >> Learn more 

We also launched a new course, Insight, which provides you with a grounded and actionable approach to incorporating data into product practices and decisions.  >> Learn More 

Both of these training opportunities can help you take your product management and product marketing skills to the next level.

If you’re new to Pragmatic Institute, we invite you to take the course, Foundations,  which helps you understand your market and the problems it faces, and then use that market knowledge to build and sell products people want to buy.

This course is live online and on-demand. It’s also a prerequisite for all of our other product courses.  >> Learn More

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Classroom Approaches The Role of the Educator

Often teaching is turned into a performance where we feel we must be “the sage on the stage”. A major difference between teaching with decision cases and traditional approaches is that the teacher acts as a facilitator of the learning process rather than a performer.

Case teaching is not easy. A teacher must be able to think ahead, reorganize and listen at the same time. Case teaching is not a rambling process without focus. The teacher must have a plan in mind before beginning the case discussion. Seldom are two decision case discussions the same.

Preparing for Decision Case Discussions Objectives and Material

Preparing Objectives Objectives are vital to case teaching. They are the glue that hold the discussion together and prevents it from turning into a “bull session.” Familiarizing yourself with the material Decision case teaching requires students to reason from the facts presented in the case. They are more able to do this if the case teacher is sure of the facts and attempts to present the essential aspects of the case. A conceptual outline which parallels the objectives may be helpful. This helps the teacher think and prepare for various topics or concepts that may be covered during the discussion. However, a good discussion rarely proceeds in the logical pattern of a structured outline.

Preparing a question outline

Prepare a question outline to match the concept outline. Questioning is the single most important skill case teachers must develop. Questions should promote discussion about the concepts to be understood rather than solicit the correct answer. Most students have been trained to think there is only one right answer to a question. They think the teacher knows it and that they will be rewarded when they say it. This kind of mindset can kill case discussions. The best way to encourage creative answers is to phrase questions that do not call for right answers.

Teaching Socratically

Only when answers generate further questions does thought remain alive. Only students who have questions are really thinking and learning. The quality of the questions we ask determines the quality of the thinking we do.   Socratic questioning recognizes that questions, not answers, are the driving force in thinking.

Preparing for Decision Case Discussions

Foundation questions

There are five basic questions that serve as a foundation of case discussions:

What makes this case a dilemma? What are the objectives of the decision maker in resolving the dilemma? What are the issues involved in this case? What are the options of the decision maker? What decision should the decision maker make?

I t is helpful to think through these questions ahead of time and determine which points you would like to see discussed.

Using a board outline

An effective strategy for case teachers is to make use of the chalkboard to help organize discussions that may at times seem to be going off in many directions at once. By doing so, students will also have a chance to see their contributions to the discussion validated. Teachers can organize the outline by the key questions asked or by topic of the discussion. The Teaching Note may contain other options.

Arranging the Classroom

Most classrooms are arranged in rows so that the teacher is the focal point; however, this physical setting can stifle effective case teaching.

The ideal situation is to arrange the seats in a “U” or horseshoe shape so the students can easily see one another and the case teacher can get close to the students and move to the blackboard.

Special recognition:

These thoughts and examples were compiled from a variety of sources. Those sources include: Decision Cases for Secondary Education t, Brakke, Dunrud, Peterson, Marla Reicks, & Simmons with Bakkum, Bowman, Pitzl, and Stanford (1994) . College of Agriculture , University of Minnesota, Critical Thinking Website—Foundation for Critical Thinking , Methods of Teaching Agriculture , Newcomb, McCracken and Warmbrod (1993) and The Power of Positive Teaching , McCormick (1994).