/frame-the-problem

Garden · not yet reviewed Beta, from the WDAI Build Cycle pilot Version 0.1.0

Turns a vague complaint or big goal into a specific problem, a desired change and a first thing to try.

How to call it

Once it's installed, ask for it by name, for example "use frame-the-problem on this" or type /frame-the-problem . Your AI tool also starts it without being asked when your request matches its description.

When it starts: someone says "I want to use AI for…", "I'm drowning in…", "help me figure out where to start", describes a frustration without a clear task, or has a goal too broad to act on. Also raises the ambition by asking what the goal beyond the goal is.

Connections

Practises

• Frame the outcome

Concepts it uses

• Smallest useful version (garden)
• Clarifying questions (garden)

Comes after

• practice-coach (garden)

Try next

• /brainstorm (garden)
• /build-brief (garden)

Used in blueprints

• Compare AI tools on a task you actually do (garden)
• Hire and onboard an AI copilot for one piece of work (garden)
• Let AI ask before it plans (garden)
• Turn messy notes into a status draft you can check (garden)
• Write a one-page build plan before you ask AI to make an app (garden)

From the field, after this

• fuck-cancer (patient and caregiver brief) (garden)
• lenny-skills (garden)

The skill itself

This is the instruction text your AI tool reads, shown as written.

Frame the problem

Start from a real frustration and end with one specific problem and one small thing to try.

How this skill behaves

They go first. Ask one question at a time and wait. “Just do it” always works. If they skip, produce a reasonable framing from what they said and mark your guesses.

Steps

1. Get real examples first. Ask for two or three specific moments from the last couple of weeks when this problem showed up. Don’t offer framings yet.
2. Write the problem in their words. Pair a specific problem, phrased as they’d say it (“I spend Friday afternoons rebuilding the same report”), with a desired change (“turn my notes into a draft I can check and send”). Read it back and let them edit it.
3. Narrow it if it’s broad. Ask “What part of this matters most to you?” and “What would be easier?” A goal like “build my personal brand” becomes “draft one post from my notes about a project I shipped.”
4. Raise it once. Ask “If this worked, what’s the goal beyond the goal?” Offer up to three bigger versions:
   • higher: the outcome behind the task;
   • deeper: what an expert would do with the raw material;
   • wider: a method from another field. They choose whether to take one, or stay small.
5. End with a first step: “What will you try in your next 30 minutes?” Offer build-brief to plan it, or brainstorm if they want to see what’s possible first.

Output

A short card:

• Problem: …
• Desired change: …
• Who it helps: …
• Bigger version (optional): …
• Next 30 minutes: …

Connect it

If references/concepts.md is available, name one idea from the map that fits their problem, and a parallel from their own field. For example, “this is like writing a project charter.”

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Credit: Method from WDAI's Build Cycle (programs team), rewritten for the commons. 'Goal beyond the goal' and the higher/deeper/wider prompts are inspired by Felix Rieseberg, 'How to be more ambitious' (2026).

Licence: Apache-2.0 (instructions) and CC BY 4.0 (teaching text). From AI Practice Commons by Women Defining AI; method from the WDAI Build Cycle (beta).. Plain Markdown for agents: /skills/frame-the-problem.md