5 hours ago
- Finding problems worth working on involves acting like a sponge—absorbing day-to-day issues and letting them accumulate to make connections.
- Instead of taking user requests at face value, dig deeper to understand the root cause and what they truly need.
- Let problems pile up and wait for patterns to emerge before acting, to avoid solving irrelevant or poorly prioritized issues.
- Identify the common shape of problems to craft a unified solution, but avoid forcing elegance that may not fit reality.
- Pressure-test ideas with prototypes, RFCs, and feedback before full implementation, and be willing to drop ideas if they don't hold up.
- Cultivate relationships and trust within the organization to gain broader insight into underlying problems and influence roadmaps.