A serious organizational problem emerged on Wednesday morning. What’s the future of the Democratic Party? The first response appeared to be a scramble by people to fill the leadership void. Before going down that path, a few questions need to be answered first:

What is a Democrat?

What does it mean to be a Democrat?

Who are the Democrats serving?

How has the Democratic Party evolved over time?

Where does the Democratic Party want to go?

Where does the Democratic Party need to go?

What is the vision of the Democratic Party?

What values are the Democratic Party promoting?

Why should a person choose to be a Democrat?

What will the Democratic Party do for people?

How will the Democrats build an organization to support their new vision?

What do the leaders of the Democratic Party want the organization to look like in 6 months, a year, or four years?

What do the current members of the Democratic Party want it to look like in 6 months, a year, or four years?

What would the future members want out of the Democratic Party?

What problems can we solve?

What problems do we want to solve?

How can the Democrats broaden their appeal to all of our citizens?

What actions can the Democrats take in the near, middle, and long term to build their organization and make an impact?

How would the Democratic Party define success over time?

Lastly, who would the Democrats like to lead their new party?

That’s how an architect would approach figuring out the future of the Democratic Party. It’s a design and structural problem.

Once they’ve answered these questions, the Democrats will be in a better position to figure out who’s going to lead their party and where they are going. Notice that there is no mention of polls or data, or any other kind of quantitative analysis–that’ll come later. The Democrats need to get back to basics and figure out who they are, what they stand for, and who they serve.