Building The Right Thing
“We spend a lot of time designing the bridge, but not enough time thinking about the people who are crossing it.” - Dr. Prabhjot Singh, director of Systems Design at the Earth Institute
We’ve all been there - you think you have the perfect solution to a problem that has been plaguing you for years. You spend days, weeks, maybe even months toiling away and finally present your solution and… it’s beautiful. Every element has been thoughtfully created to solve every frustrating part of this problem that makes you want to pull your hair out. You even added that button that does that “thing” because imagine what the “thing” will help with.
So - you share your solution with the world - other people have this problem too and they’re gonna love this! You put it out there but… they hate it. How could they hate it? You knew exactly what was needed and worked so hard, all for a bunch of negative feedback? (They aren’t even pressing that cool button you included) So much time… wasted.
Too often we fall into the trap of solving other people’s problems the way WE think they should be solved. We build what WE think is the “right” thing, not what is actually “right” for the other person. Then we get defensive when they find fault with all the things we built because WE thought they would fit.
Why does this keep happening? And how do we avoid this problem in the future? How do we know we’re building the “Right Thing?”
First - you need to remove yourself and your needs from the equation. Sure - experiencing a problem might have sparked your desire to create a solution, but once you decide to make something you want others to use, all of your needs go out the window. Reframe your approach from “solving a problem” to “designing a solution.” Seek to empathize with your ideal users, define the actual problem, ideate multiple solutions, create a prototype of the most probable solution(s) and then test them. Take the feedback you get from your tests to then iterate and make things better. Following this process allows you to ensure you’re focused on solving the “right” problem, you’re focused on solving it for others, and you’re generating quick tests so that you waste as little time as possible on things that either won’t work or won’t get used.
Let’s look at how to do this by following the Design Thinking process:
Separate yourself from the problem, and from the solution
It’s important to understand problems from the user perspective - you’re solving things for them, not for yourself.
- Talk to all your stakeholders - ask open-ended questions around pain points, listen to how they make people feel
- Your goal, early on, should be to discover - not diagnose.
Focus on the Right problem:
- Practice active listening and ask clarifying questions to ensure you’re getting to the root cause of someone’s frustration. What bothers us at our core may not be what rises to the surface. Make sure you are truly listening, and working to understand the big picture.
Design & Align:
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Digest the data and start to layout the logical paths forward
- Prioritize user needs.
- Start with “how might we…”
- Come away with a clear problem statement, driven by end-user feedback.
Get creative:
- Capture as many ideas/solutions as possible
- Leverage a diverse team, allowing for multiple perspectives
Reign it in:
- Pick your solution to test.
- Build your MVP and release it to your test users to get feedback.
Know when to iterate - or when to pivot
- You know your users. Observe reactions to your tests and look for cues signaling the green light to push forward, or the need for a change. At the end of the day you’re testing a hypothesis, which if proven untrue just means you need to make an adjustment.
- Leveraging A/B testing can be a great way to speed up the iterative process. If you’ve got multiple solutions and you’re unsure which one to test first, test them both! Break your users into separate groups and release different solutions to each group, paying attention to differences in adoption, satisfaction, and whether or not the users feel their problem is solved.
Conclusion:
Solving problems for others is hard. All too often we get sucked into our own passion for how we want something to be built, that we forget we’re building it for someone else. Remember, design is a collaborative effort. For the process to truly work, you must leave egos and negativity at the door. Only allow room for collaboration and creativity, and keep the focus on moving forward. Trust us, when you get this process right, there are few things as rewarding as hearing your users say “this is exactly what I’ve been looking for!”
So get out there, stop solving problems for yourself and start designing solutions for others!
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