A colleague of mine worked for 2 months on building a fantastic analytics dashboard for a partner team. On demo day, they realised that the requirements and the solution were different. They had built a brilliant solution, but not to the problem at hand.
This and countless other similar situations arise due to a very deep rooted and common issue. People often like to simply glance over the “problem” and jump straight to the “solution” when they think of problem solving.
Often, the idea behind such an approach is that it will help solve the problem faster. In fact, on the contrary, this is bound to be the most suboptimal strategy. You’ll find yourself back to the drawing board on numerous occasions due to a wide range of reasons.
A better problem solving approach
A better approach is to spend significant time getting to know the problem. And don’t take my word for it.
If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem, and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.
Albert Einstein
I like to be a bit more dramatic and often say “think of yourself as a jealous spouse and the problem as your partner’s unattended phone and get to work”.
How to identify if you understand the problem well ?
An excellent indicator is to see if you use complex or overloaded terms when trying to explain it to someone. That’s a Big red flag.
Another personal favorite of mine is to see if your understanding of the problem can sustain 5 consecutive “why” questions. Most superficial arguments break down over this.
How to understand the problem well ?
Prioritise “why/what” questions over the “how” questions as much as possible during initial discussions. Irrespective of your “designation”, put on the cap of a product lead when discussing problems.
Communication is key. Being a great problem solver in industry is more about precise communication than you’d think. Great leaders often excel in this. Breaking down ambiguous requirements into well defined problems to solve is a super power.
Try to see if you can organise your thoughts in a written form. Writing often brings a certain clarity that most oral forms of communications never do and often leads us straight to gaping holes in our understanding.
We fail more often because we solve the wrong problem than because we get the wrong solution to the right problem.
Russell L. Ackoff
This content was originally posted as a Twitter Thread.
A colleague of mine worked for 2 months on building a fantastic analytics dashboard for a partner team. On demo day, they realised that the requirements and the solution were different. They had built a brilliant solution, but not to the problem at hand. (1/n)
— Pratik Mishra (@pratikmishra001) November 15, 2020
