From Problem to Design

From Problem to Design

IntermediateTopic6 lessons~5h 5m

Lessons, in order

01 DiscoveryDiscovery is the work of finding out what the problem actually is before proposing anything. People arrive with a solution — "we want a chatbot", "we need agents" — and the architect's first … Intermediate 50 min 02 Qualifying and Prioritising Use CasesA workshop will produce twenty ideas. Most organisations then start the most exciting three, which are usually the hardest three. A use-case scorecard replaces excitement with three scores: … Intermediate 45 min 03 Requirements and Success MetricsOrdinary software either does what the specification says or has a bug. An AI system is right some percentage of the time, and the central requirement is therefore a question no traditional … Intermediate 50 min 04 Build, Buy or PartnerFor any AI capability there are four ways to get it: buy a finished product, configure one on a low-code platform, build on a managed AI platform, or run it yourself on your own … Intermediate 45 min 05 Cost, TCO and ROIAn AI business case rests on three numbers. Unit cost is what one task costs to run — one claim, one answer, one resolved ticket. Total cost of ownership (TCO) is everything the solution … Intermediate 1h 06 The Solution Design DocumentThe solution design document is where an architect's work becomes something other people can approve, build and blame. It answers, in order: what problem, for whom, how well it must work, … Intermediate 55 min

About this topic

This is the core of the job. Six lessons take one engagement from a vague request to a document a steering group can approve: find the real problem, decide whether it is worth solving with AI, write down what “working” means, choose build or buy, price it, and put the decisions on paper.

#	Lesson	The question it answers
01	Discovery	What is the real problem, who has it, and what data exists?
02	Qualifying and Prioritising Use Cases	Of twenty ideas, which two are worth building first?
03	Requirements and Success Metrics	What does “it works” mean, as numbers someone can test?
04	Build, Buy or Partner	Should we buy a product, build on a platform, or run it ourselves?
05	Cost, TCO and ROI	What does one task cost, what do three years cost, and when does it pay back?
06	The Solution Design Document	How do I write the design so it can be challenged, approved and built?

The lessons follow one running example — a claims team at an insurer — so that each artefact builds on the last. The complete engagement is assembled in A Worked Engagement.