Help your candidate win
Election season seems never ending these days. As candidates ask for funding and support, how can you get your person elected so they can make the improvements you want? With limited time and resources, it makes sense to take a step back and explore what path is best to improve the government.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Improve your candidate’s chances of victory.
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- More votes for your candidate.
- More passionate supporters of your candidate.
Other goals could include minimizing your own donations, maximizing your impact, and making new friends through connections made in the campaign.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- How could I increase the number of votes for my candidate? Maybe the problem to solve is “What actions could I take that would lead to more of our voters turning out on election day?”
- How can I get more people passionate about my candidate? Maybe the problem to solve is “What skills or connections do I have that would persuade people to listen to me?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to helping your candidate win. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Knocking on doors can increase the number of votes for your candidate, can increase the likelihood of them winning, and you can develop friendships by working together. However, it is a time-consuming option, is generally focused on identifying existing supporters, and takes a lot of time.
- Trying to convince people who are politically engaged to support your candidate can help get more passionate supporters for them, can increase the likelihood of them winning, and minimizes your volunteer time. However, it may not directly lead to more votes for your candidate, and it requires you to be good at explaining what is great about your candidate.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense when you’re trying to improve the government?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.