Jumping to solution mode is natural and dangerous

When we are faced with a problem, we tend to immediately try to find a solution. Sometimes this is good - you won’t be very effective if you question everything all the time. However, many times, this will prevent you from truly understanding the problem.

You probably heard this before, and it might sound obvious. Yet, we still tend to fall in love with our own ideas, and convince ourselves that we are truly solving problems.

Can you explain the job your product is performing? What is the situation your user is in? What are they trying to do? What is their expected outcome?

Answering those questions is the first step. You want to understand why your user does what it does, and why they want to do what they do when they do what they do. Make sure you stay in the realm of the useful - you’re not trying to find the meaning of life here - but find the answers on why something is useful to your user, usable by them, and desirable.

You might find that the problem you thought you were addressing doesn’t exist, and you just made it up to match the solution that you fell in love with.