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The Five Step Approach for Tackling Complex Problems
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“The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.”
Albert Einstein
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Ask Questions
The right questions are at the heart of discovery. And one of the very first questions you should be asking yourself is “What assumptions can I challenge?”
The mere act of trying to discover what assumptions you and others are making can give you a new perspective on the challenge you're facing.
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Discover the Core Problem
Go beyond the basic features being asked for and get to the heart of the problem.
Ask questions like: Who cares about this problem? Why is it important to them?
If there are no good answers to these questions, is the problem even worth working on?
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Divide and Conquer
After you come up with a solution to your problem, take a close look at it.
Which pieces could be split into separate modules or components? Can any of those components provide value independently? If not, can any be tweaked so that they do provide independent value?
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Let your Subconscious Work
After spending time researching your problem, you’ll probably find yourself also thinking about it in your spare time.
This is when all the different pieces you’ve been studying for so long can suddenly click together in a new way, giving you fresh insight.
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Find your MVP
Think about what would make a good MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for your problem.
Get creative in what you consider an MVP. Maybe showing random strangers at Starbucks a napkin drawing of your app’s layout would be good enough for example.
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Key Ideas
Use the why lens
Great leaders only solve problems within their control. Ones connected to their biggest why. They ask:
- Is this our problem?
- Why should we solve this problem?
- What ...
Problems as opportunities
Problems fuel great leaders, providing opportunities to learn and grow to the next level.
The greater the problem, the hungrier they are for a solution. Leaders like Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates view problems as golden opportunities to disrupt the market and revolutionize the customer experience.
Acknowledging the problem
Great leaders acknowledge there is a problem and demonstrate the severity of the problem and the benefit of the solution to stakeholders, partners, and shareholders.
This way, the leader not only takes responsibility for making the problem transparent, but he or she also explores different dimensions of the problem, consequently benefiting from others’ ideas.
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"There is no inherent value in any piece of data because all information is meaningless in itself. Why? Because in..."
Beau Lotto
Data is Not Reality
- We see organizations and the engineers who work in them steering towards big data, so it is commonly assumed that data means acumen and direction.
- Any Data, by itself, does not bring clarity. Data is just information, not reality. It does not represent anything in the field of actuality.
- Data is also, never complete. Getting more and more Data does not equate to getting more clarity.
Incomplete Data is Misleading
Our brains like to fill up incomplete information based on our prejudice and confirmation bias.
As all data is inherently incomplete, we use our minds to fill the missing information, based on the existing data we have, and that can go obverse.
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Meta-Learning
It's knowing how to learn. Learning itself is a skill, and knowing how to do it well is an incredibly valuable advantage.
Merely acquiring information is not learning....
Learning has 2 phases
Learning is a two-step process:
- Read/listen: feeding ourselves new information.
- Process and recall what you’ve just ‘learned’: connecting new materials to what we already knew.
Remembering the right things
You should not waste your time by committing unimportant details to memory.
Your focus should be on understanding the bigger picture, on how things relate to each other.