Is an exercise that typically takes place as part of the desing thinking process. It was created by Procter & Gamble in the 1970’s. It’s purpose is to encourage brainstorming and creativity to solve identified problems or insights.

A How Might We (HMW) statement basically turns your challenge and frames it into a question that can be solved by a group.

The questions can be formulated by one person or as a group, whilst for the exploration of the answer it’s best if there’s more than two individuals to encourage thinking outside of the box by bouncing off ideas.

“How” suggests that the problem can be solved, “Might” allows us to imagine or explore possibilities (as wild as we want) without committing to them, and “We” acknowledges it’s going to be a collaborative effort.

Examples taken from the web:

  • How might we make our website more appeling for our customer segment Y?
  • HMW make searching for interesting parts of a podcast something people want to do?
  • HMW change the idea that convenience is the easiest route?
  • HMW structure working days to maintain good energy levels throughout?

End note - if you want to take it further you can question each HMW question by asking “What is stopping us to [follwo what the HMW answer suggested]?