“Know the problem you are solving” is about knowing the specific problem and for whom this problem exists. It isn't about knowing what solution a persona lacks but about truly understanding a persona's needs and challenges. When you can focus a team on solving a problem rather than implementing a solution, you get more creative and innovative solutions. Oftentimes you discover that there are easier ways to solve the problem and the solution you thought was needed might never get built, but the problem still gets solved.
From a request for comprehensive authentication and authorization being solved by moving one web page inside the firewall, to entirely eliminating a process rather than automating it, I have seen over and over again how when a team understands the problem and has the latitude, they can come up with solutions that take less time, cost less, and have meaningful impact.
When you know the problem you are solving, it increases clarity for the team and it helps to shape how you think about scope and prioritization by giving context to options and tradeoffs.
If you can move a team from thinking in solutions they need to implement to problems they need to solve, you will see positive outcomes without addressing any of the the other 7 behaviors.
In future articles, I’ll talk about tools and techniques that help with the behavior, “Know the problem you are solving.”
If you want to keep up on the progress of the Behaviors Book, pay attention to the Behaviors Book page. And if you would like to learn more about how we use The Behaviors to guide teams, reach out.
In this article, I want to go more in depth on Opportunity Solution Trees; what they are, how they are used, how to create one, and how I think about them slightly differently (but only slightly) than folks like Teresa Torres who really introduced them broadly to the Product community in her book “Continuous Discovery Habits”. This book, by the way, is a must have for anyone who works in software product development - not just folks in product-specific roles.