A Problem Solving Matrix is a useful tool in determining whether or not ideas will work - whether you're creating a new feature for a newspaper, trying to decide where to go to college or just looking at what to do this weekend. The Problem Solving Matrix will help you organize your thoughts and determine whether or not your ideas will work, solve problems or create products.

The goal here is to determine what new features or story ideas would be appreciated in a newspaper. For this activity, you can either work alone and survey a group of friends or neighbors, or work with other students.

Here are the steps you need to follow:

1) Download and print the "Problem Solving Matrix Sheet."

Problem Solving Matrix Sheet -pdf download (11K)
To download the FREE Acrobat Reader 3.0, click here.

2) Brainstorm (or survey others) to get ideas for the new features or new story ideas that you and your classmates would like to see in a newspaper. These ideas can be for any part of the paper, from a local news or metro section to features, health, sports and even different types of classified ads. Collect as many ideas as possible and add lines to the form.

3) Write all the ideas in the left column, as shown in the sample "Problem Solving Matrix Sheet," which is shown below. The sample is not on sports but on different features. It is a sample form, or matrix, that will show you how to design your own matrix.

SAMPLE - PROBLEM SOLVING MATRIX SHEET

4) Decide the criteria you want to use to evaluate the feature ideas. Examples of criteria are also shown on the sample "Problem Solving Matrix Sheet." If you like, you can add more columns and additional criteria.

5) Take a look at the newspaper feature ideas and evaluate them, using plus or minus signs. If an element is unknown or unrelated to the evaluation, enter a zero.

6) Tally up the scores in the right column to determine which new features would be best to add to the local newspaper.

7) Put your new feature ideas on the "Newspaper New Feature Survey Sheet" provided.

Newspaper New Feature Survey Sheet -pdf download (4K)
To download the FREE Acrobat Reader 3.0, click here.

(Click on "Newspaper New Feature Survey Sheet" above to download a copy of this form.) Then enter the features you think would be best to add to a local newspaper. Now it's time to determine how popular the ideas will be with the people who would buy the newspaper.

8) Conduct a survey of at least 25 people (the more the better!) to determine how they rate the new feature ideas. At this point, It might be easiest to photocopy the sheet with the list of your ideas and use one of those for each person surveyed.

If you don't have access to a photocopy machine, just ask the questions from the main page, and then write the answers on separate sheets. Once you've conducted your survey, you can combine those answers on the Newspaper New Feature Survey Tally Form.

9) After you have finished your survey, use the "Newspaper New Feature Survey Tally Form"

Newspaper New Feature Survey Tally Form -pdf download (5K)
To download the FREE Acrobat Reader 3.0, click here.

(click on "Newspaper New Feature Survey Tally Form" above to download a copy of this form) to total the answers and add up the scores. For each question, put a tally mark in the appropriate box for each person who answered. Once you've filled in the tally marks for all the questions, total the tally marks. This will tell whether or not people really want or will read the proposed new feature or story.

10) Once you've determined the potential popularity of each new feature, make bar graphs so that the results are easy to understand. The bar graph can be as fancy as you like, using different colors to represent the answers. Do this by figuring out the percent of total of each answer. It's only necessary to graph the ideas that were supported by your survey. If a feature idea was disliked by most or all, leave it out!

Get your initial ideas for new features or new stories from people who currently read newspapers or subscribe to newspapers.

Then, expand your survey to at least 100 people, all of which are current newspaper readers or subscribers -- people who buy newspapers. This will be more difficult, but will give more weight and importance to your survey answers.

With this base, you can take your graph and ideas for features to the editor of your local paper and present these ideas and your survey. Or you can write to the editor, share your ideas and survey, and invite the editor to your class.