Too often, we leap to solutions before taking time to completely understand the problem that needs solving. Defining the problem is a critical first step; if you fail to do this, you risk designing a solution that doesn’t address what users need or want —or one that does far more than required. Either way, you’re wasting time and money.

It’s hard to not jump to solutions. But you can get better at recognizing that behavior when it’s happening. And, when you recognize it, you can stop yourself before saying or doing the wrong thing. Sometimes we can feel that the quickness of a decision is more important than the long-term outcome but most decisions are not needed immediately and we do in fact have the time to make the right decision.

If you don’t take enough time to really understand what the problem is, you may end up applying the wrong fix to the situation and making things worse. We can also make it more difficult to figure out what caused the problem so that you can prevent it from recurring. Even if we resolve the situation this time, you may find a similar issue cropping up again in the near future.

Only by addressing the root cause of the problem will you be able to take the most effective corrective steps and ensure that the problem will go away permanently.

Summing-up: Take the time to understand from outside your own frame of reference and discover answers and solutions that were invisible to you before.