How Might We (HMW)
Definition
"How Might We" (HMW) is a question-framing technique used in design thinking and design sprints to restate insights from user research as open-ended questions that invite ideation — turning a problem or pain point into an opportunity space the team can explore.
The "How Might We" technique was developed at Procter & Gamble and popularized in the design thinking world by IDEO and Stanford's d.school. The specific phrasing is intentional and meaningful:
- How — assumes that there's a solution to be found; it's a matter of how, not whether.
- Might — signals that these are possibilities to explore, not definitive plans. It gives permission to be wrong.
- We — frames it as a collaborative challenge, not one person's problem to solve.
How HMW questions are generated: During the Define phase of design thinking (or on Monday of a design sprint), the team reviews their research findings and turns each insight into an HMW question. One insight → one or more HMW sticky notes.
The calibration challenge: HMW questions need to be neither too narrow nor too broad.
- Too narrow: "How might we add a blue button to the confirmation screen?" — this is already a solution, not a question.
- Too broad: "How might we make the world a better place?" — this is so expansive it doesn't direct ideation.
- Just right: "How might we help users trust that their meeting notes won't be lost?" — opens up a real problem space with multiple possible solutions.
After writing HMWs: Teams typically generate 20–50 HMW questions on sticky notes, organized on a wall or whiteboard. They then dot-vote to select the three to five most interesting questions to focus on during ideation. The selected HMWs become the creative briefs that drive Crazy Eights and solution sketching.
HMW sessions produce whiteboard walls full of sticky notes. BoardSnap AI reads them and clusters them by theme, saving the transcription work.
Examples
- Research finding: 'Users forget to follow up on action items from meetings' → HMW: 'How might we make action items impossible to forget?'
- Research finding: 'People feel embarrassed showing a messy whiteboard to remote colleagues' → HMW: 'How might we make any whiteboard presentation-ready instantly?'
- Team generates 35 HMW notes; dot voting narrows to 4 questions for the ideation phase
- HMW question 'How might we reduce the time between meeting end and notes shared?' drove the core BoardSnap design decision to deliver output in under 10 seconds
- Design sprint Monday: team spends 30 minutes writing HMWs, then 15 minutes voting — produces the five questions that define Tuesday's ideation
Snap a how might we (hmw). Ship its actions.
BoardSnap turns any whiteboard — including this one — into a summary and action plan.