7 Pitfalls of Problem Definition: How businesses tend to think about customer problems all wrong

And how to make sure you and your team don't fall into these traps

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.” — Albert Einstein

If you work in Product management or a modern technology organization, you probably hear the term “customer problem” all the time. Customer-obsessed businesses are constantly asking, “What customer problem are we trying to solve?”

There is an art and a science at play here. Not only do you need to find the “right customer problem” to solve at a given point in time for your business, but you also need to define it accurately before you try to solve it.

Right now you might be thinking: Who cares how we define it? Let's just figure out what the solution is!

Stick with me: there is actual science and psychology behind the approach of slowing down to get into the weeds on this topic.

One of my passions is facilitating workshops with business leaders and product teams. In helping them understand their customers' biggest problems, I like to get them to get super clear on the underlying problem — and not just the surface one.

When tackling this activity, I jump right to the most common pitfalls. This levels the playing field and gives the attendees context so they can make mistakes earlier and as a group.

As they whiteboard and talk through the examples with their colleagues, it's much easier to spot flaws in logic because they have a guide to poking holes in their first attempts. Learning starts right away and people feel good about making progress.

We as humans tend to fall into a set of common traps when trying to identify root causes or underlying problems. Many of them stem from bias or cognitive distortions — the human brain can be tricksy and false!

Here are some of the most common pitfalls I see when teams set out to define customer problems:

1. Skipping to Solutions or Tactics: People are really good at coming up with solutions to problems. We're wired to do it. But when we do that, we introduce risk: there might be another solution with bigger potential or an underlying problem that the solution doesn't address.
2. Preconceived Ideas or Previous Experience: Going in with one person's ideas limits perspective. This is one of the reasons diverse teams drive better results.
3. The Loudest Voice in the Room: If one person is dominating the conversation, others may hesitate to speak up with their own ideas. Psychological safety is a feeling that it's ok to speak up or offer another perspective. When someone dominates the conversation with a “command and control” style, it takes a certain kind of person to say the emperor's not wearing any clothes.
4. Innovation bias is a a cognitive bias where individuals or organizations tend to overestimate the potential success of their own ideas and undervalue the potential success of others. This can lead to a lack of consideration for alternative solutions or a failure to collaborate with others. Both of these may lead to “confirmation bias,” where a person only considers evidence that supports their existing beliefs and ignore the rest. All of this prevents humans and companies from fully exploring the problem and finding the best solution.
5. Customer Bias: This is a tricky one. While you want to really understand your customer's needs or their biggest problems you won't always be able to get to that by asking them directly. Quality user research led by experts can help here.
6. Unvalidated Assumptions: A hypothesis without experimentation is just a theory. Ask yourself: “How can we test this assumption with the least effort in the shortest time possible?”
7. Limited Data: Similar to #6, if you base your problem statement on a limited dataset, you run the risk of missing the big picture or some important context.

Any of these can derail a good team or lead to wasted work. Taking time to deeply understand and analyze the landscape is worth the time investment.

What other ways have you seen problem definition go south?

Maura Charles is the founder of Keep it Human. As a Product Leadership Coach and Consultant, she is on a mission to help teams and organizations embrace human skills like communication and emotional intelligence in their ways of working. 

She brings 25 years of experience as an editor, product manager, and digital business leader to bear on the challenges of building human-centered high-performing tech teams. 

If you'd like to develop more human business and tech teams that hum together to drive results, check out Keep it Human and follow Maura Charles on LinkedIn.