Wicked problems are typically described as complex social and cultural problems. It’s those that are not easy to solve and, in most cases, will negatively impact some other indirectly linked challenges.
Horst Rittel was among the first people to formalise a theory of wicked problems. According to him, ‘wicked problems have no definitive formulation. The problem of poverty in Texas is grossly similar but discretely different from poverty in Nairobi, so no practical characteristics describe poverty.’
My guest on the CX Lore podcast, Ian Stokol, CXPA, UX and service designer, described it though a following example:
‘You might want to increase safety in the streets for people to walk at night. But then they feel watched, tracked, and monitored. They don’t feel save from the people who are trying to protect them. So the solution brings as many problems as it tries to solve.’
What do CX practitioners have to do with wicked problems?
With his background in UX design, Ian was the perfect person to talk to about frameworks of systemic changes. When I say frameworks of systemic change, I think of design thinking, ethnographic research, agile project management, and human-centered-design (HCD).
These are frameworks and tools the design community has been developing over the past forty years. But what do CX practitioners have to do with wicked problems?
To understand this, let me introduce you to a model of CX evolution Stokol developed in 2021. According to this model, there are six stages of CX development: PX (product experience), MX (marketing experience), BX (brand experience), UX (user experience), CX (customer experience), HX (human experience).
Stokol advised that we should not think of them in linear terms, or value them by importance. Each level of CX development is there to stay. The question is – how well will companies align them with real people’s needs?
In my conversation with Ian, I was particularly interested in HX and what CX practitioners can do about designing for wicked problems. This is how he explained it:
‘In human experience, companies can’t be oblivions to these factors when selling their product and services. Because their product and services are impacted by these environmental factors and wicked problems.’
Global polycrisis will require system thinkers
Factors Ian talks about are related to climate change, but also to the cost of living crisis, cybersecurity, migrations caused by climate changes, etc. In the recent Global Risk Report 2023, the World Economic Forum came up with a new word to describe another wave of socio economic crisis: polycrisis.
“Present and future risks can also interact with each other to form a ‘polycrisis’. [This is] a cluster of related global risks with compounding effects – such that the overall impact exceeds the sum of each part”.
The global economic and climate challenges will be the most urgent problems to think of in 2023 and beyond. This conversation with Ian helps us understand where CX is in this global picture many different players are painting at the moment. Understanding all of them before drafting our next plan makes us system thinkers.