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3 years ago in Problem Statement By Riya N
How do I ensure my problem statement is actually "researchable" and not just a philosophical or practical dilemma?
I have a clear issue: "There is poor communication between engineers and designers in tech companies." This is a real problem, but my supervisor says it might not be "researchable" for a PhD in Management. How do I transform it?
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By Lukas Answered 1 year ago
A researchable problem must be observable, measurable, and amenable to scholarly analysis. Your example is a great start. To transform it, operationalize the vague terms. What does "poor communication" mean specifically? Is it frequency of meetings, clarity of requirement documents, or conflict during brainstorming? Frame it as a knowledge gap: "While interdisciplinary collaboration is deemed vital, existing literature lacks a framework for measuring communication efficacy between engineers and designers, making it impossible to diagnose root causes or test interventions." This pins the problem to a missing scholarly tool (a measurement framework) that your research can provide. Now it's researchable through methods like surveys, content analysis, or ethnography to build/test that framework. The problem moves from a workplace complaint to a methodological gap.
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