How fun is it to be the first one who comes up with the solution! Such a great feeling knowing that you were the one who solved the problem. However, it’s easy to haste and provide a solution to the symptom and not the actual problem. I guess we all do that from time to time.

Most of the times the actual problem hides behind the symptom, and when we focus on providing a fix for the symptom, not only that we might miss the problem (and not fix it at all), we could increase the severity of the problem or hide it even further.

Here are some tips that help me (every day) come up with solutions for the actual problem and not for the symptom:

1. Try to describe and characterize the problem and not the symptom. Ask yourselves what could cause the symptom (the problem) that you see. Try listing all possible sources you can come up with. Focus on gathering information and describing the issue at hand.
   
2. Focus on the “Story”. Ignore the visible issue and focus on the “story”. The story should tell the the full (end-to-end) process that is currently not working. A good evidence that you got the story right is your ability to tell the story to someone else and make them understand it.
   
3. Start by assuming you don’t know. When you assume that you don’t know it forces you to investigate more thoroughly and to make sure you understand what you find.
   
4. Ask yourselves why. Why a certain outcome came to be? Why ‘X’ happened? What could have caused ‘X’ to occure?
   
5. Zoom-Out. After gathering some information try to zoom-out and arrange all the facts that you have into the Story mentioned in section (2). Make sure it is short and clear. This way, if you need assistance, and have to get someone new to speed on this, it will be easy and clear.
   
6. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you have questions, find the relevant person and go ask the question regardless to how sophisticated (or not) you think your question is. Even if you think or feel that your question is stupid. There is no such thing as a stupid question when you are trying to investigate an issue. You can always throw the word “Production” in. It will definitely help 😁.
   
7. Avoid theological and theoretical discussions. Do your best to avoid theoretical discussions around how that process or flow should work, and what should be the best-practice for it. As important as these discussion are, they are irrelevant at that point of time and will only waste your precious time. However, you should make sure these discussions are held right after the issue is resolved.
   
8. Verify and validate your suspicions and conclusions before you implement them. Do not settle for thinking only. Make an effort to validate and verify that your suspicions are correct and evident.
   
9. Focus on the facts and data that you see. Do not forget to use all the data and facts that you see when constructing your solution. No data or fact should be ignored, as ignoring them might shift you away from the required solution.
   

Have other useful tips? let me know…