VotablyFraming Ladder
Ask why until the real problem shows up
Start from your problem statement, climb up by asking why to find the bigger goal, climb down by asking how to find concrete angles — then turn the best reframing into a prompt your team can run with.
Best for: Reframing a problem before jumping to solutions
Free.No login for participants.One link.
How it works
Write your starting problem statement on the middle rung.
Ask why to add broader framings above; ask how to add narrower ones below.
Pick the framing that clicks and turn it into open prompts like “How might we…”.
Send the chosen statements straight into another work tool.
What is a framing ladder?
The framing ladder is a laddering technique for problem framing: you write a starting problem statement on a middle rung, then climb up by asking why to find the bigger goal behind it, and climb down by asking how to find more concrete angles on the same problem. The technique borrows from design thinking, where reframing a problem before jumping to solutions is treated as its own step, not a shortcut to skip.
The output people actually want from a framing session is a prompt, usually phrased as How might we, In what ways might we, or How to, that opens the problem back up instead of locking in one answer too early. A good How might we statement is broad enough to invite more than one solution and specific enough that a team can start brainstorming against it immediately.
Votably runs the ladder as a shared board: anyone in the session can propose a why or a how, the group sees every rung form in real time, and the facilitator picks the reframing that clicks before turning it into one of the three starter prompts.
Related tools
Why Votably instead of a whiteboard template?
A problem framing template usually lives in Miro or FigJam, both of which need a paid or logged-in account before anyone can add their own why or how. Votably's framing ladder is a link: everyone joins with a display name and adds rungs from their own device, no account required. The facilitator gets a share link for the group and an admin link to manage the session, and once a reframing is chosen, its How might we prompt can be sent straight into a dot voting or priority matrix session instead of getting retyped by hand.
Questions people ask
- Is there a free how might we template I can use online?
- Yes. Votably's framing ladder is a free how might we template that runs online with no login for participants. Everyone joins with a display name, adds rungs to the ladder from their own device, and the group turns the best reframing into a prompt together.
- What is a how might we statement used for?
- A how might we statement is a short, open-ended prompt built from a reframed problem, worded so a team can brainstorm several possible answers instead of jumping straight to one solution too early in the process.
- What is a problem framing template used for in design thinking?
- A problem framing template helps a team agree on the real problem, and the right altitude to state it at, before generating solutions, since solving the wrong framing wastes the ideas that follow. Votably's framing ladder runs this as a shared online board.
- How does climbing why and how work on a framing ladder?
- Asking why moves you up Votably's framing ladder to a broader goal behind the problem, and asking how moves you down to a more concrete, actionable angle on the same problem, giving the group several framings to choose from.
- Can I send a framing ladder result into another tool?
- Yes. The chosen how might we, in what ways might we, or how to prompt can be sent directly from Votably's framing ladder into another work tool, such as dot voting, without retyping it by hand.