Don't Smash the Watermelon!

“Driving complex change and solving for big issues in a business needs to be deliberate and intentional. This book provides a helpful roadmap to bring that intentionality to life and deliver outcomes rather than chaos.” —MARK FOSTER, Former Chairman of IBM Consulting, Former Group Chief Executive at Accenture “In a future where machines will increasingly handle the known, human advantage shifts to framing the unknown. That’s what makes Don’t Smash the Watermelon! feel so timely. It’s a full-on field guide to disciplined curiosity: how to lead with need, ask the right questions, distill collective thinking, and wrangle complexity into confident action.” —MIKE BECHTEL, Founder & Futurist - Onward, Former Chief Futurist – Deloitte, Adjunct Professor of Corporate Innovation - University of Notre Dame “A masterful, indispensable guide that transforms the messy art of problem-solving into a disciplined craft—practical, wise, and immediately actionable for any leader facing complexity. The book is cool and fun —a powerful update to Minto’s Pyramid Principle and Ackoff’s Art of Problem Solving. Every MBA should work through the book’s content (as should every future consultant).” —TOM EISENMANN, Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Peter O. Crisp Faculty Chair at the Harvard Innovation Labs, Faculty Co-chair of HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, and Author of Why Startups Fail “Most teams don’t solve problems—they react to them. This book nails the deeper issue: We’re often solving the wrong problem in the first place. It replaces that instinct with a disciplined way to define the right problem before racing toward answers. It’s practical, sharp, and refreshingly honest about why so much ‘work’ leads nowhere. If you want your thinking to actually drive decisions—not just slides—read this.” —SHUBBER ALI, CEO, Omnic.ai “As someone who designs and runs project- based learning at scale, I’ve encountered a crowded field of problem-solving frameworks — most promise transformation and deliver taxonomy. Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is the exception. It’s a practitioner’s handbook and a pedagogical argument in one. Noonan and Segall have spent decades watching teams collapse under the weight of ambiguity, and from that insight they’ve built a portable, principled methodology for doing better. This is the rare book that will change how you teach, not just what you teach.” —MICHELLANA JESTER, Senior Lecturer of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management “This book provides a step-by-step guide to unlocking your team’s potential and solving complex business challenges—without costly consulting fees.” —GRACIELA CHADWICK, COO Seventh Wave Refreshments, and Former COO Crumbl Cookies “Too many teams ‘smash the watermelon’ —rush into complex problems without the structure needed to produce real insight and value. This book offers a rich collection of practical tools and hard-won insights for problem solvers at every level. Even experienced decision professionals will find much here to adapt and apply, strengthening both their own work and the value they deliver to clients.” —CARL SPETZLER, Chairman, Strategic Decisions Group “AI can capably crunch the messy middle of a vague, unstructured problem. It still can’t frame the question or sell the answer which is where most teams fail. Noonan and Segall offer a rigorous, seven-step guide that addresses exactly those two moments: from messy first-mile problem definition to last-mile deployment. The examples are real, the tools are practical, and the timing is perfect. Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is the structured problem-solving book this moment deserves.” —SHANNON MCKEEN, Professor of Practice and Executive Director of Experiential Learning and Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business, Co-Chair of the Wake Forest Experiential Learning Initiative, Chairperson of LEPE, and Principal at Doprava Consulting, LLC “For decades, the best consulting firms have been talent factories - not because of their brands or networks, but because they train people how to think and lead change. The structured problem-solving discipline core to those firms is the real competitive advantage, and until now, it’s been locked inside their walls. Patrick S. Noonan and Lynne G. Segall have cracked it open. Don’t Smash the Watermelon! gives every manager, analyst, and team leader access to the same rigorous craft that shapes the world’s most effective problem solvers. Highly recommended!” —JASON WILD, Partner & Chief Catalyst, Paradox Strategies and Co-author of Genius At Scale “Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is a powerful antidote to the chaos that so often happens with organizational problem solving. The authors reveal why smart teams so often rush in, create a mess, and miss the real problem. Drawing on decades of consulting and teaching, Noonan and Segall translate the elusive craft of structured decision-making into practical tools that teams can use immediately. This is the rare book that will fundamentally change how people tackle their organization’s toughest challenges. Embrace the watermelon; don’t smash it.” —GRETCHEN SPREITZER, Keith E. and Valerie J. Alessi Professor of Business Administration, Ross School of Business at University of Michigan “We live in a world where everything is urgent all of the time. In that world, we move recklessly. We act without thought. We ‘smash the watermelon.’ Noonan and Segall deliver a masterclass in how to navigate urgency, complexity and ambiguity with intention, insight, and skill. If you are wrestling with complex challenges, Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is your roadmap to the outcomes that you truly want.” —BRANDON SMITH, “The Workplace Therapist,” President, The Worksmiths LLC, and Author of The Author vs Editor Dilemma and The Hot Sauce Principle “This thought-provoking book is sorely needed! Much of the hype around AI has been about the jobs it might replace. In the analytics space, we talk about non-automatable skills that will survive, those being the critical skills of problem framing and influencing. In Don’t Smash the Watermelon!, Noonan and Segall provide just what the doctor ordered for how to deal with messy problems, particularly around problem framing. Students in data science and analytics, professionals in this space, and really anyone who must manage something, will find their Structured Problem-Solving approach useful and immediately applicable.” —JEFF CAMM, Inmar Presidential Chair in Analytics, School of Business at Wake Forest University and Co-author of Business Analytics and Statistics For Business And Economics“Driving complex change and solving for big issues in a business needs to be deliberate and intentional. This book provides a helpful roadmap to bring that intentionality to life and deliver outcomes rather than chaos.” —MARK FOSTER, Former Chairman of IBM Consulting, Former Group Chief Executive at Accenture “In a future where machines will increasingly handle the known, human advantage shifts to framing the unknown. That’s what makes Don’t Smash the Watermelon! feel so timely. It’s a full-on field guide to disciplined curiosity: how to lead with need, ask the right questions, distill collective thinking, and wrangle complexity into confident action.” —MIKE BECHTEL, Founder & Futurist - Onward, Former Chief Futurist – Deloitte, Adjunct Professor of Corporate Innovation - University of Notre Dame “A masterful, indispensable guide that transforms the messy art of problem-solving into a disciplined craft—practical, wise, and immediately actionable for any leader facing complexity. The book is cool and fun —a powerful update to Minto’s Pyramid Principle and Ackoff’s Art of Problem Solving. Every MBA should work through the book’s content (as should every future consultant).” —TOM EISENMANN, Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Peter O. Crisp Faculty Chair at the Harvard Innovation Labs, Faculty Co-chair of HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, and Author of Why Startups Fail “Most teams don’t solve problems—they react to them. This book nails the deeper issue: We’re often solving the wrong problem in the first place. It replaces that instinct with a disciplined way to define the right problem before racing toward answers. It’s practical, sharp, and refreshingly honest about why so much ‘work’ leads nowhere. If you want your thinking to actually drive decisions—not just slides—read this.” —SHUBBER ALI, CEO, Omnic.ai “As someone who designs and runs project- based learning at scale, I’ve encountered a crowded field of problem-solving frameworks — most promise transformation and deliver taxonomy. Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is the exception. It’s a practitioner’s handbook and a pedagogical argument in one. Noonan and Segall have spent decades watching teams collapse under the weight of ambiguity, and from that insight they’ve built a portable, principled methodology for doing better. This is the rare book that will change how you teach, not just what you teach.” —MICHELLANA JESTER, Senior Lecturer of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management “This book provides a step-by-step guide to unlocking your team’s potential and solving complex business challenges—without costly consulting fees.” —GRACIELA CHADWICK, COO Seventh Wave Refreshments, and Former COO Crumbl Cookies “Too many teams ‘smash the watermelon’ —rush into complex problems without the structure needed to produce real insight and value. This book offers a rich collection of practical tools and hard-won insights for problem solvers at every level. Even experienced decision professionals will find much here to adapt and apply, strengthening both their own work and the value they deliver to clients.” —CARL SPETZLER, Chairman, Strategic Decisions Group “AI can capably crunch the messy middle of a vague, unstructured problem. It still can’t frame the question or sell the answer which is where most teams fail. Noonan and Segall offer a rigorous, seven-step guide that addresses exactly those two moments: from messy first-mile problem definition to last-mile deployment. The examples are real, the tools are practical, and the timing is perfect. Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is the structured problem-solving book this moment deserves.” —SHANNON MCKEEN, Professor of Practice and Executive Director of Experiential Learning and Innovation at Wake Forest University School of Business, Co-Chair of the Wake Forest Experiential Learning Initiative, Chairperson of LEPE, and Principal at Doprava Consulting, LLC “For decades, the best consulting firms have been talent factories - not because of their brands or networks, but because they train people how to think and lead change. The structured problem-solving discipline core to those firms is the real competitive advantage, and until now, it’s been locked inside their walls. Patrick S. Noonan and Lynne G. Segall have cracked it open. Don’t Smash the Watermelon! gives every manager, analyst, and team leader access to the same rigorous craft that shapes the world’s most effective problem solvers. Highly recommended!” —JASON WILD, Partner & Chief Catalyst, Paradox Strategies and Co-author of Genius At Scale “Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is a powerful antidote to the chaos that so often happens with organizational problem solving. The authors reveal why smart teams so often rush in, create a mess, and miss the real problem. Drawing on decades of consulting and teaching, Noonan and Segall translate the elusive craft of structured decision-making into practical tools that teams can use immediately. This is the rare book that will fundamentally change how people tackle their organization’s toughest challenges. Embrace the watermelon; don’t smash it.” —GRETCHEN SPREITZER, Keith E. and Valerie J. Alessi Professor of Business Administration, Ross School of Business at University of Michigan “We live in a world where everything is urgent all of the time. In that world, we move recklessly. We act without thought. We ‘smash the watermelon.’ Noonan and Segall deliver a masterclass in how to navigate urgency, complexity and ambiguity with intention, insight, and skill. If you are wrestling with complex challenges, Don’t Smash the Watermelon! is your roadmap to the outcomes that you truly want.” —BRANDON SMITH, “The Workplace Therapist,” President, The Worksmiths LLC, and Author of The Author vs Editor Dilemma and The Hot Sauce Principle “This thought-provoking book is sorely needed! Much of the hype around AI has been about the jobs it might replace. In the analytics space, we talk about non-automatable skills that will survive, those being the critical skills of problem framing and influencing. In Don’t Smash the Watermelon!, Noonan and Segall provide just what the doctor ordered for how to deal with messy problems, particularly around problem framing. Students in data science and analytics, professionals in this space, and really anyone who must manage something, will find their Structured Problem-Solving approach useful and immediately applicable.” —JEFF CAMM, Inmar Presidential Chair in Analytics, School of Business at Wake Forest University and Co-author of Business Analytics and Statistics For Business And Economics

PATRICK S. NOONAN

Dr. Patrick S. Noonan is an award-winning professor, writer, and business advisor. He is Professor Emeritus at Emory University, where he taught decision analysis, business analytics, and problem-solving for over 25 years. He is a former faculty member of the Harvard Business School, where he earned his PhD in Decision Sciences. He also holds an MBA and a BS in Engineering & Applied Science from Yale. A former McKinsey consultant, Dr. Noonan has also advised organizations such as Microsoft, Dow Chemical, the CDC, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. His classroom work earned him Emory’s Distinguished Educator award 13 times, and his career contributions were recognized with INFORMS’ Annual Prize for Teaching the Practice of Analytics.

LYNNE G. SEGALL

Lynne G. Segall is a global expert in building the capabilities of individuals, teams, and organizations in the art of problem-solving and communication. As an Associate Dean and Associate Professor in the Practice of Organization & Management at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, Prof. Segall leads Goizueta IMPACT, its flagship, project-based experiential-learning curriculum, in which MBA teams tackle real-world problems and deliver practical solutions to sponsoring organizations. Prof. Segall also develops and teaches programs on structured problem-solving, coaching teams, and communication to executives at organizations such as Crumbl Cookies, U.S. Army Rangers, and Warner Brothers Discovery. Previously, at Accenture, she served clients, designed professional development programs for 16,000 consultants worldwide, and developed talent and organization consulting services. Prof. Segall holds an MBA from Emory and a BS in Communication Studies from Northwestern University.

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