HBR Idea in Brief Summary Content Slots (Product Thinking)

In hindsight I read this all as good product thinking.

I loved the content slotting used in each feature article of HBR with a sidebar or bottombar or topbar of “Idea in Brief.”

The patterns I observed per named section as three slots each are:

Spotlight: The problem / Why it happens / The Solution
Culture: The frustration / What’s missing / The leader’s role
Operations: The problem / The root cause / The solution
Marketing: The problem / The tool / The application
Innovation: The context / The way forward / The social gains
Social Responsibility: The problem / The solution / How it works
Innovation: The problem / The reason / A solution
Strategy: The challenge / The reason / The insight

New Taxonomy (Updated August 18, 2019)

These arguments can go in one of two ways of definitely giving the solution VERSUS familiarizing someone around the problem area in a convincing manner.

👋 I have the answer — HOWs

🏁 The Completely Solvable, or “Give me the answer!”

The challenge / The cause / The solution
The problem / The reason / The solution
The problem / The root cause / The solution
The problem / Why it happens / The solution
The problem / What the research shows / The solution

👋 I have the answer — HOWs

🤔💬 The Completely Solved and Let Me Explain, or “That’s solved, let me be concrete for you.”

The problem / The solution / How it works
The problem / The tool / The application

🖖 I may have the answer — WHYs

🍎 Unsolved People Matters and The Complex, or “It depends, and it starts by caring …”

The context / The way forward / The social gains
The old approach / The new approach / The upshot
The frustration / What’s missing / The leader’s role

🖖 I may have the answer — WHYs

🍏 Emergent Solutions and Made-You-Think, or “Let’s go big picture to start to convince you that the problem exists.”

The problem / The context / The way forward
The problem / A new outlook / What it means for companies
The problem / What doesn’t work / A better way