John Cutler Profile picture
I like the beautiful mess of product development.| newsletter: https://t.co/tCLvCkCdiS

Oct 15, 2021, 7 tweets

a little product lesson

we often experience situations where we are faced with overlapping problems

it looks a little like this ... 1/n

...except, often no one really takes the time to define the problem(s). Instead they brainstorm a bunch of ideas predicated on implicit perceptions of the problem(s)

the danger here, of course is that... 2/n

...if you bring three people together they might each see different things

One person sees one problem

One person sees two slightly overlapping problems

One person sees a parent problem with three child problems 3/n

Even when people see "the problem" they often have different perceptions of the problem

Sees the whole problem, but not sub-problems
Does not see the overarching problem
Sees it all

Note how this guides approaches... 4/n

Very different.

Oh, then we have another problem.

Every book says "DEFINE THE PROBLEM". Well..it is a moving target 5/n

And just when you think you've dialed it in, you bring a new person into the fray and they say ... 6/n

Which is all to say that the problem solution distinction is more like a mushy sandwich of nested problems, nested solutions, emerging problems, emerging solutions, expanding problem scopes, different perspectives, re-articulation, learning

It is hard. The End 7/n

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