Getting Your Candidate Elected

Some elections seem to be decided before the first ballots are cast. Other times, the votes are so close that it may take days after the election to know the answer. In the countdown to election day, there are many possible approaches to try to help your candidate win. At that point, it makes sense to take a step back and explore what other options you might have to address your current dilemma.

Complex problems are often vague, and that means they have many possible solutions. Following the Meta-Problem Method may lead you to a distant dilemma from the one that started your quest. A key part of the method's value is that it forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It also enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade-offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early, and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.

Step in the Meta-Problem Method	Illustrative Example
Dilemma The high-level issue you are trying to address	You want to help your candidate win an election.
Goal The changes you would like to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options. Selecting the best set comes after you learn what is possible.	Supporting Goals Your candidate wins Minimize the cost of the campaign Minimize undeliverable campaign promises Effective use of volunteer time Run the campaign with integrity
Problem Space While goals tell us what we want, our next step is to understand what is holding us back from making progress on them. This approach is borrowed from calculus as we explore the neighborhood of the current dilemma.	For each goal that you are considering, ask yourself: How much progress is possible? How much effort would it take to make progress? What methods might help to make progress? What might the positive or negative effects be on the other goals as you make progress towards the current one? Example Problems: How could we increase the odds that my candidate will win a little? Are they already in the lead, losing ground, or trying to get ahead?  For example, maybe an upcoming debate is an opportunity to impact a large number of potential voters in one go if the candidate does well. How could we use limited budget dollars as effectively as possible? Is TV, radio, mailers, digital advertising, or some combination the best approach?  For example, in a mail-in ballot region, mail is an effective way to reach likely voters. How could we use campaign promises to improve the odds of winning the election? Are there specific messages that are both likely to work and aligned to the candidates goals?  For example, some priorities from the candidate are likely to be more popular than others. Promising the popular ones and saying nothing for the unpopular ones allows the candidate to keep more of their promises. How could we win a high-integrity election? Do competitors have the same goal?  For example, if the opponent has been running negative ads, there may be a high stakes choice of how to respond. Depending on how the public interprets the negative ads, different strategies may help your candidate win.
High-Yield Problems Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.	Which Options Will Advance More Than One Goal? Making the right campaign promises can help your candidate improve the odds of winning, avoid breaking their promises if they win, and help them maintain integrity in the election. Leverage news to help get the word out about your candidate. This can be the lowest cost way to reach many voters, increasing the odds of a win without using up too many advertising dollars or volunteer hours. Carefully craft succinct marketing messages and choose where to show them. By ensuring the marketing is clear, the advertising cost may be lower while also helping the candidate win the election. Conduct focus groups to ensure the right messages are being presented. This can improve your candidate's odds of winning, reduce costs, and ensure volunteers share the right messages. Et cetera.
Problem Selection Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?	Selection Criteria Which solutions will best address the dilemma? Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money? Which solutions is the student most excited to take on? By this point in the Meta-Problem process, you have clarified your goals, identified some options you could take, weighed the trade-offs that come with each of those options, rejected some options because they will take more time, effort or money than the results are worth, and you have identified a set of high-yield problems that will advance several of your goals at once. Now you are ready to start solving a problem knowing what you expect to achieve.
Implement, Learn and Adapt	Observe and learn as you go. New information may reveal itself as you implement your chosen solution, so check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.