Abstraction Ladder

What is it?

An abstraction ladder allows you to frame your problem in order to come up with a solution. It asks the “why” questions for the more abstract ideas from your initial problem statement and the “how” questions for more concrete ideas. Discovering these two sides of the problem will help you and your team be able to understand aspects of the problem that may not have been obvious before.

When to use

When your team feels stuck on a problem that needs to be solved, using this abstraction ladder to break up the various aspects of “why” and “how” can allow you to find solutions within defining the problem.

How to use

Double-click the text in the green box and type in your initial problem statement
If you would like to define this initial statement in more detail, use the green sticky notes to further explain your problem. You may add a green sticky note by dragging the green icon and dropping it to its desired position.
Brainstorm why this is a problem that needs to be solved. Drag and drop the yellow sticky note icon to add ideas to this section.
Do the same for the ideas pertaining to how this is a problem by using the purple sticky notes.
Develop ideas towards a solution to the problem.

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