Make the Problem Legible First

In our tech-centric innovation culture, striving to achieve legibility of a given problem is hugely undervalued relative to solution development.

Yet, problem exploration to improve legibility may be the most effective route to problem solving.

But what does “legibility” even mean?

It means shifting the focus from the solution to understanding the problem in higher resolution.

It means seeking to understand and empathize with the use case underlying the problem in totality across functional, financial, and emotional dimensions.

It means learning to observe and perceive detail that you normally do not care to. As John Salvatier says in this wonderful post, reality has a surprising amount of detail.

It means asking and questioning every assumption behind the problem, its underlying causes, its adjacent spaces, and what success means relative to status quo alternatives. And do this iteratively until you get to the “best obtainable version of the truth”.

Things are rarely what they seem.

The dashing job candidate looked so great in the interview but turned out to be a misfit in your company.

The promising marriage dissolved into bitter acrimony because you never figured out what you really wanted from a partner in the first place.

The software your team selected for subscription management did not work because the requirements for your specific business were never specified clearly before the evaluation. It ended up costing the business millions of $ in lost productivity and sales.

Why is this so hard to figure out? Why would so many smart people make such seemingly fundamental mistakes?

Making things legible needs you to search not under the lights but where it is dark, unexplored, and uncomfortable.

It is more tempting to start and iterate on the solution and claim victory soon. But the harder and more successful path is to explore the illegible or partially legible problem to make it more legible.

Legibility of problem leads to clarity of need. The best solution is the one constructed in genuine earnestness to fulfill that clear need.

Seek legibility of the problem first. You might be surprised to see the solution staring at you in the face in plain view.