Simplex Process
The Simplex Process is an eight-stage loop for tackling messy problems - from finding the real problem through to action - designed to be run again once implementation surfaces the next problem.
Eight stages sit around a ring, arrows carrying you from one straight into the next until the loop closes.
Reach for this when…
- The team keeps jumping to solutions before anyone agrees what the problem actually is.
- A good idea died because nobody planned how to sell it internally.
- You solved one problem and immediately uncovered a new one nobody's tackling.
How to run it
- Problem finding: scan for issues, trends and opportunities before they become crises.
- Fact finding: gather what's actually known about the situation, not what's assumed.
- Problem definition: state the real problem precisely, in one sentence.
- Idea finding: generate options without judging them yet.
- Evaluation and selection: choose the idea worth pursuing.
- Action planning: turn the chosen idea into specific, sequenced steps.
- Gaining acceptance: sell the plan to the people who can kill it - don't assume a good idea sells itself.
- Action: implement, then feed whatever surfaces straight back into problem finding.
A worked example
Situation. Lukas Meier ran Studio Meier, a small advertising agency in Basel, Switzerland, where staff turnover kept getting blamed on 'pay' without anyone checking.
Applied. He ran the team through fact finding before letting them touch solutions, and the real problem turned out to be unpredictable scheduling, not pay at all.
Result. They redesigned the scheduling process, sold it to account leads as a pilot, and turnover dropped within two quarters. The pilot then surfaced a new problem, onboarding, which restarted the loop.
The catch
The eight stages can feel bureaucratic for a genuinely small problem, and gaining acceptance is often skipped by teams who assume a good idea sells itself, then wonder why it stalls. It also demands real fact-finding discipline; teams under time pressure routinely skip straight to idea finding.
If nobody in the room can state the problem in one sentence, you are still in problem finding, whatever stage you think you're on.
Origin: Min Basadur