Challenges

inefficiencies, problems and opportunities to work on

Challenges is a lens for spotting inefficiencies, problems, and openings in a workflow: where work is slow, frustrating, or fragile. For a newsroom, naming a challenge plainly is the first step to deciding whether it is worth solving. A team might pause here to surface the friction they have learned to live with.

Questions to explore

// use these as prompts in a workshop or on your own. There are no right answers.

Where in this workflow do we lose the most time or energy?
Which problems have we worked around for so long that we stopped noticing them?
What breaks most often, and who deals with it when it does?
Where does this workflow depend on one person knowing how it works?
Which of these challenges would change the most if we fixed it?

Expert voices

// notes from the journalists and AI experts who helped shape this kit

“Ideas should start with the workflow and its problems, not with what the technology can do.”

Martin Schori, Aftonbladet

“Start with the pain, not the tool. Observe your newsroom's workflow: what repetitive task consumes hours, what data goes unanalyzed? The best AI project solves a real, felt need, not a theoretical opportunity that impresses management.”

Mwende Mukwanyaga, AI Salon

“Start with the bottlenecks. AI earns its place by relieving real inefficiencies and delays in newsroom workflows, not by adding novelty.”

Ola Möller and Barbara Gruber, MethodKit and DW Akademie

Things to consider

The friction you have gotten used to is often the friction worth examining.
Not every problem is worth solving, so it helps to weigh the payoff.
A challenge named plainly is easier to act on than a vague complaint.

using this card

Pull Challenges when it is relevant and set it aside when it is not. Pair it with the other Perspective cards, lay them out on a table, and use the questions above to get everyone on the same page. Capture what you discuss on sticky notes or in a shared doc.