Hi Russell. That's an excellent question.

The answer is that we have to consider that UX research and MVP development are iterative, meaning, the process of studying users and product development is never really done.

An Initial Problem Statement (IPS) guides us along the path to find out exactly if the strategy, ie, the problem/solution is actually working for the intended user.

The example I posted (How might we help high-school students prepare successfully…) is an initial idea crafted on the principle of the 3 steps:

How to help? What action can we take? What support can we provide?

User research might prove that the idea itself needs adjustment or even change 99% to really work.

Or, user research might prove that the idea needs to be implemented on a micro level and then grow organically.

An IPS is a start to get research in place.

An interesting example I could mention:

On February 4, 2004, a Harvard student, M. Zuckerberg launched The Facebook, to connect Harvard students with one another. By the next day, over a thousand people had registered, and that was only the beginning.

So, Zuckerberg’s IPS might have read like this:

“What can I do to meet more people without meeting them in person.”