A frame is the implicit definition of a problem that determines what counts as a relevant fact, what solutions are conceivable, and what success looks like. When New York City elevator users complained about slow elevators, the conventional frame was an engineering problem: how to make elevators faster. Engineers calculated the upgrades would cost millions. A reframe changed everything: the problem was not slow elevators but bored waiting riders. Solution: install mirrors in the lobbies. Complaints dropped to almost zero. The frame was the problem.

Every problem definition contains assumptions that can be questioned. When IDEO was asked to improve the shopping cart, they did not optimize the existing design — they started by asking what problems the shopping cart was really trying to solve and who its users actually were. When a city wanted to reduce crime in parks, the reframe from "security problem" to "usage problem" (empty parks attract crime; busy parks deter it) led to solutions about programming and lighting rather than policing. Reframing is not avoiding the problem but finding the real one.

Reframing is a fundamental skill of expert problem-solvers because the way a problem is stated shapes what solutions seem natural. In design thinking, the "How Might We" (HMW) question is a deliberately optimistic reframe: "How might we..." converts a problem statement into a solution invitation. The HMW for the slow elevator problem was "How might we make waiting feel shorter?" — which opened entirely different solution spaces than "How might we make elevators faster?" Different framings of the same underlying situation generate different actions; learning to deliberately choose frames is one of the most powerful thinking tools available.