Writing a Strong Problem Statement

Last reviewed: April 2026

A strong problem statement tells reviewers what is happening now, why it matters commercially, and why the proposed intervention is proportionate.

Weak versus strong

Weak: "We want to improve productivity and digitalise the business."

Stronger: "Customer orders are manually re-entered across sales, fulfilment, and invoicing, causing duplicate entry, delayed confirmation, and billing corrections. The business needs an integrated workflow to reduce turnaround time and improve data accuracy."

What reviewers look for

• specificity
• relevance to pathway objective
• measurable pain or risk
• logical bridge to intervention
• proportionality between problem and requested support

Notes by funding type

• For accelerators: highlight growth bottlenecks and execution learning goals.
• For pilot funding: define deployment use case and validation outcome clearly.
• For debt financing: connect the problem to cash-flow or expansion constraints that financing will address.

Next step

Continue to Budget and Cost Justification Guide.