Look & Listen — frame the problem and the people

Look & Listen (L) is where every project begins. Before modelling a solution, you start with the Why and get honest about the problem and the people it affects. The aim here is understanding, not answers — listen first.

What you're doing here

Frame three things: the problem (what's really wrong, and its root cause), the people (who's affected and who holds a stake), and the Why (why this matters enough to pursue at all). Capture what you hear in Notes as you go — they feed Sandai's drafts of the tools below.

The tools

• Next Big Idea — start with the Why, for you and your customer, and name what you want to try. The natural first stop.
• Problem & Root Cause — state the problem as one crisp sentence, then drill to its root cause with a facilitated 5 Whys.
• Project Charter — set the vision, mission, scope, objectives and success criteria so everyone shares the same frame.
• Stakeholders — map who's affected and how best to engage each one: their interest, influence, an engagement approach (manage closely / keep satisfied / keep informed / monitor) and a concrete next step. Enter the stakeholder's role and Suggest how to engage proposes all four for review — apply the ones that fit. Stakeholders also feed Sandai: when you Flesh out a User Persona later, it grounds the persona in the stakeholders you captured here.
• Idea Pitch — sharpen the idea into a positioning one-liner and the six STRONG elements.

You don't need all five — reach for the ones that move your understanding forward.

When you're ready

Once the problem and the people are clear, advance to Elaborate & Evaluate to model the solution and decide what's worth building. Not quite there? That's fine — the phase is a marker of where your focus sits, not a gate. More on advancing and stepping back.