2023 Q2 | Edition 2 | Article 3
Taking a researchers’ perspective on messy or wicked problems
For some problems, there are online video tutorials that can help us to bypass the trial-and-error phase and fix problems fast. But other problems are more challenging, and a quick video can’t explain the nature of the problem or the ways to fix it.
Researchers would call these a ‘wicked’ problem, not wicked in the sense that they are evil or particularly good, but simply that solving a problem like that is always going to tough. A problem can be described as wicked when it meets the following definition:
Wicked problems tend to be social or cultural in nature. In our own small personal sphere, we may experience a wicked problem in our close relationships with others, in our hopes to find satisfying and well-rewarded work, or in our business and investment goals. So many aspects of the problem seem to be tangled up.
Click on a link below to learn more about each feature of a messy problem
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It’s unclear exactly what the problem is. We feel disgruntled and unhappy, but it’s hard to put our finger on the exact cause or the exact problem.
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Solutions are even more evasive to define than the problem. There are some suggestions that we can follow that might improve the situation, but those perhaps are only partial and create challenges elsewhere.
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The timescales that we’re dealing with mean that we cannot identify any one action that will have an immediate positive impact on the problem. We are, at best, guessing about the future.
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We are unsure what to prioritise when it comes to solving the problem. We can’t address every aspect of the challenge and it’s hard to know where to even start.
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There seem to be some greater implications of the problem, and those are very troubling. There will be undesirable consequences of either our action or inaction that are still poorly defined.
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It’s difficult to isolate specific aspects of the problem so that we can deal with each part in turn. Our problem is hardwired into the messy context that we first observed it in. It feels that we’re being pushed to an all or nothing approach to solving it.
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There may be many people involved in the solution to this problem, and rather worryingly, we can’t control the choices that they make.
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It’s not just that we don’t have all the information that we need. We don’t even know yet the right questions to ask to get a full picture, and the situation may evolve before we ever do completely understand what we need to ask.
The Features of Messy or Wicked Problems
Hoe do we take a researcher’s perspective
In cases like these, it can help to take a researcher’s perspective on things. While working diligently to try and unpick the nature of the problem and to anticipate the best next steps, a research team will always let go of the hope that they have found a magic solution and ground themselves in the very fundamental reality of the difficulty of the problem.
What they adopt instead is a very real respect for the urgency of the problem. This isn’t something that we should pay attention to at night when we can’t sleep, or just after we’ve had a disappointing argument or Sunday evening before we head back to a job that we find unrewarding. The messy problem that we’re trying to solve deserves much more of our attention. It demands a systematic attempt to unpick the issues and test ideas out one by one.
Criticism by peers
For the researcher, opening their work up to criticism is part of their job. It’s essential to allow them to see the aspects of the messy problem that they have missed or undervalued. But it’s not just any criticism that they pay attention to. It needs to be criticism from peers - in other words other individuals who have proven that they, too, are invested in topic enough to spend substantial time and effort in becoming an expert. The concept of focusing attention on peer review only allows researchers to take a shorter route to progress.
When we have our own messy problems to tackle, we need to remember to give our problems the proper consideration and analysis that they deserve and to identify the best peers to review our progress.
A message from the Rev. Bayes
What if human knowledge actually counts for something beyond the mathematics? That was the radical assumption of Rev. Thomas Bayes, full time clergy, part-time founder of machine learning.
