Are you solving the wrong problem?

Design thinking is a problem-solving process combining qualitative research with applying design principles like visualizing data and prototyping. Effective problem-solving depends on asking the right question so the actual problem is identified before exploring solutions. A CEO learned the same lesson twice: early work using AI in steel mill production and later leadership of a presentation platform through generative AI. In both cases, progress came from reframing the focus rather than improving technology. In the steel mill, attention shifted from machine efficiency to customer delivery timelines. In the presentation platform, the focus moved from where users were stuck in the interface to what users were trying to accomplish, revealing that the real issue was having a deadline tomorrow.

"Design thinking is essentially a problem-solving process that is 50% qualitative research and 50% the application of design principles such as visualizing data and prototyping. In the design thinking world, we are well aware that 80% of the problem-solving process is grounded in making sure you even ask the right question . . . before you go running down the rabbit hole of possible solutions. All great problem-solving starts with identifying the actual problem to solve, which is discovered with really great questions."

"Both times, the breakthrough came not from better technology, but from asking a better question. First, as an MIT graduate student in the late 1980s, applying early AI techniques in steel mill production. And again decades later, leading a global presentation platform, Prezi, into the age of generative AI. The breakthrough came from reframing what mattered most, not from improving the tools alone."

""The closer you are to what the ultimate point of what you're doing is, the better," he told me. At the steel mill, that meant shifting focus from machine efficiency to customer delivery timelines. At Prezi, it meant moving away from asking customers where they got stuck in the interface and to asking what they were actually trying to accomplish. The answer surprised Szafranski's colleagues: "I have a deadline tomorrow. That's my problem.""

"This is what I call the difference between optimizing and orienting. Most organizations are excellent at optimizing. They have dash"

Read at Fast Company