The task is your goal – not the Product.
In many design and development projects the company or the team already know what they want to develop. This situation can limit the creativity in your design thinking process. What do i mean by that.

Example

A typical situation: A project will be announced.

Please develop a new coffee machine. I made a drawing for you including all features we should include.

In this situation what should your design team do? Are they able to develop the brand new machine with a lot of great new feature. More important, will there be a user centered design in place? In this case the possible solutions are very limited because the limits are set by the project definition. But this is wrong. You want to design the best possible product to help your customers in the best possible way. Fulfill the customers needs and requirements.

Open end – open for all solutions.

To develop new products and serf your customers best. It is very important to define an open design challenge. Your problem statement need to define the design goal not the product itself. The product development will be done by your team and the following challenge. Use the real strength of user centered design. Let the team and your customer design the solution.

Your Goal needs to be your project target.

So it is important to define your correct goal. What do you want to have in the end. Of course if you want to develop a defined product you need to set the defined project goal. But in case you want to develop something to fit your customer needs you need to open your mind for all kind of possible solutions. And the best solutions will be made when there are no limitations and restrictions. Let your team play and explore there possibilities. Include the customers thinking. You will be surprised about the possibilities.

Enjoy and explore