Problem-Solving Skills Development

Don’t tell prospects they have a problem. Why? People are motivated to change for their reasons, not yours. Only when prospects own the problem do they seek a solution. How do you do that? Several months ago, Terminex inspected my home. The salesperson educated me on the following; What subterranean termites are. How they infiltrate a home. Why pest control is ineffective. The cost of an invasion. Pictures of damage. He educated me first. Then the salesperson said, “Would you like to see what your home and attic look like?” I said yes. As he showed me the pictures, he said, “Tell me what you see here?” Brilliant: “I see moisture.” “There’s no insulation under the sink.” “There’s insulation missing in the attic.” I immediately took ownership of the problem. He asked this question to close the deal “Where would you like to go from here?” Sold. The lesson? it’s not your job to fill your prospect’s head with information: Your job is to draw it out of them. People don't buy because they understand you. They buy because you understand them.

The reaction to my post "Some of My Learnings" https://lnkd.in/g7pS3JX6 was far more positive than I had expected. Many of you commented that you would like to see a more detailed explanation of each of the learnings. So I will try to have a post for each of the learnings for those who are interested. Glad so many of you found the post useful. Thanks again. Ok, here goes the first one. *** Learning #1: Pick the right problem to solve. Make sure they are hard problems worth solving. It turns out that picking the right problem to solve is one of the most important inputs for a business. The quality of the problems we pick to solve is directly proportionate to the probability of success of the outcome. This is super counter-intuitive. Because we might think that easy problems are easier to get successful with. But the reality is that solutions to easy problems can be replicated by others quickly. And hard and important problems typically attract the best people towards the mission. Now we all know that Business is a team sport. The caliber of people we attract on a team is a great predictor of success. The reality is that if we want durable differentiation in a business, we must focus on solving hard problems that are deemed important to the buyer. So the million-dollar question is "HOW" do we pick the hard, important problems to solve? Consider these three things: 1) Pick Problems Where You Have Instinct: Go after problem spaces that the team has primary instinct and a deep understanding of. If not a deep understanding, make sure at the very least that the team has an unnatural curiosity in the problem space. This instinct is important because it will help you answer some fundamental questions with a relatively high degree of certainty, such as: - Q1: Is this an acute enough problem? Basically is it a "nice to have (Vitamin)" or is it a "must have (Painkiller)"? It is much better to be in the business of selling painkillers versus vitamins. - Q2: Would people pay money to solve this problem? Would it be on the top of their priority list to solve for? - Q3: If this problem was solved elegantly, would it bring delight to the buyer? In other words, is there an emotional appeal to the possibility of solving this problem? 2) Pick Problems Where You Bring a Unique Perspective on the Solution: We should only build products for important problem spaces where if we didn't build them, no one else would build it quite as effectively. 3) Pick Problems Where Your Solutions Help Your Customers Either Neutralize, Differentiate or Optimize: Geoffrey Moore has a great framework. Pick problems where the solutions either help customers neutralize a deficit fast, differentiate meaningfully or optimize deeply. Regardless of these tips, know that picking hard problems is more art than science. It requires judgement. It requires instinct. It requires a point of view that is informed. But picking the right problem to solve is a pre-requisite for success.

I've watched over 2,500 discovery calls in the last few years. There's one thing I'm convinced of: Top salespeople get to the "heart of the problem" FASTER than their peers. SPEED to uncovering the 'real' problem matters. Here's why: Avg salespeople don't uncover even the tip of the ice berg until late in the call. So they never get a chance to go beyond the surface. They run out of time. Great salespeople get to the heart of the matter fast. That gives them TIME: Time to peel back the onion. Time to explore negative impact. Time to diagnose the root cause. Here are four questions (in order) that get to 'the heart of the deal' fast: 1. Tell me about your biggest challenges when it comes to X? Easy enough. Just enough to kickstart the conversation in the right direction. But not enough by itself. Customers will (almost) always give surface level answers to the first question. 2. What's going on in the business that's driving [what they shared] to be a priorty. Ask this, and your customers will CHUCKLE half the time. Why? Because you are striking a CHORD when you ask that. You're getting to the 'need behind the need.' That's where big money lives. Getting closer. 3. What metric is suffering most as a result of that? Avg sellers struggle to quantify pain. You walk into a different world when you go from expressed pain to quantified pain. Your customer's urgency ramps up. And spending money to solve the problem begins to look REAL good. 4. What's driving you to solve all this now rather than later? Ask this too early? And the answers will be weak. BUT... If you ask this AFTER those first three questions... Your customer now has the FULL CONTEXT of the problem top-of-mind. And now... their answers to THIS question will be far, FAR richer. Give those 4 questions (in order) a try. P.S. Here's 39 more questions that sell: https://lnkd.in/g-VRcCsq

Wise leaders treat the disease, not the symptoms. Use these 6 questions to solve the right problem permanently. 1️⃣ What output fell short? Everything is a factory. People, process and technology combined to yield an outcome. Sales is a factory. Customer service is a factory. Strategy is a factory. What is yours designed to deliver? The problem we want to start from is where our factory came up short. Typically it's: - Quality (bad output) - Volume (not enough output) - Cost (expensive output) 2️⃣ Who is responsible? Someone is in charge of that factory:  - They own the design.  - They address problems.  - They handle exceptions. If there's confusion about this, address this issue first. 3️⃣ Do they know what excellent looks like? Without a vivid picture of the goal and clear agreement on how to accomplish it, your factory will produce one thing: chaos. The remedy: training. A factory without trained employees should strike fear into every leader's heart. 4️⃣ What broke? Usually the factory breaks in many ways, not just one. List them out. Then I pick one based on three criteria:  - Is this a pattern I've seen before?  - Is something (or someone) new? - Is it connected to our current bottleneck? 5️⃣ Why? Many leaders have heard about the 5 Whys, but start with one. Most employees aren't forced to move past the surface level (which is often an excuse) and own the motivation behind the action. This is why, if genuine, it will yield a very different problem to solve. One that is much higher value. 6️⃣ Who should do what differently? Answering this question is the entire goal. Growth requires trust, clarity, and accountability. Leave with agreement on who will do what by when. --- As Abraham Lincoln said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." These questions might not feel natural at first. That's good. If you want different results, you need to try a different approach. And the most effective way to solve problems is to solve the right problems.  One of the most popular MGMT Playbooks goes deeper on this topic. I expand on these questions and tell you precisely what to listen for. https://lnkd.in/eXXhiby8 It's free to subscribe.  Readers get 50+ playbooks and templates, plus a new one every week. Or follow Dave Kline for more practical leadership insights.

I've interviewed over 80 candidates for program manager & strategy roles in tech. Here are some common mistakes made during the interview process and how you can prepare for success. 1️⃣ Candidates focus too much on only impressing the hiring manager. This is a BIG mistake. While the hiring manager makes the ultimate decision, it is your future peers and stakeholders who help influence whether you should be hired or not. Especially as a PM where your job is predicated on stakeholder testimony. Make sure to leave a positive impression towards everyone! 2️⃣ Candidates mix up project management versus program management. For program manager roles, we are looking for how you manage many projects at once, your methods for prioritization, risk management, and communication to large groups of XFNs. While the experiences are similar, it is very important to think about the scale and impact. 3️⃣ Candidates mention methodologies such as agile & waterfall but fail to apply it towards their direct experience. I see this often where candidates discuss the "what" but not the "how". Experienced PMs can tell the difference between reciting what you read online versus applying it to a real example that you led. Before your interviews, spend time talking through how you applied scrum, kanban, and/or hybrid methods in a short and concise way. 4️⃣ Candidates immediately jump to solving a problem instead of asking follow up questions during case style interviews. We are not looking for a perfect answer but rather assessing your problem solving skills. A consulting hack is to use a framework like the Star method (situation, task, action, and result) when providing an answer. Bonus points if you are able to provide any metrics or quick data analysis in your responses. 5️⃣ Candidates fail to understand the different type of stakeholders they will potentially work with. If you are interviewing for a program manager role within an engineering department, you will most likely work with technical teams, engineering managers, product managers, and many more. In Trust & Safety, it may be legal teams, policy, compliance, risk management etc. Different stakeholder groups mean different management approaches and styles of communication. For example, talking to an engineer about program management is very different than a lawyer. Make sure to research the department you are interviewing for! Is this helpful? If so, let me know in the comments. Share some more common mistakes you have seen and tips for success. Let's help someone land their next PM role! #InterviewTips #ProgramManagement

Want to up your data analysis/science game? I will share one of my most powerful techniques in this post. Here’s the cool part. This technique is universal. I’ve used it to feed exploratory data analysis (EDA), market basket analysis, and machine learning algorithms. I’ve used it with small data, big data, and everything in between. Can you guess what it is? It’s a specific type of SQL query: SELECT <unique_id> -- Has something happened? ,MAX(CASE WHEN <some_logical_condition> THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS <indicator> -- Count how many times something happened ,SUM(CASE WHEN <some_logical_condition> THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS <count> -- Count how many times something happened within X number of days ,SUM(CASE WHEN <some_logical_condition>  AND DATEDIFF(DAY, <start_date>, <end_date>) <= <value> THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS <date_count> FROM <some_table>     <any_joins> WHERE <filter> GROUP BY <unique_id> I can’t tell you how often I’ve used some version of the above SQL to craft data that produced new business insights. Some real-world examples: 1 - Pull data into Microsoft Excel (e.g., via Power Query) to conduct EDA. 2 - Crafting binary indicators to use in market basket analysis. 3 - Building powerful features for machine learning models. Over the years, I’ve found SQL to be the most versatile and useful of all my data skills: A – Querying relational databases for “small” data. Make no mistake, “small” relational data is still king in many organizations. B – Querying “big data” stores like Spark and Hive. That said, the idea behind the SQL query is the real magic. Grab your tool of choice and start exploring your data: You can reproduce the SQL using dplyr or pandas? Awesome! You can reproduce the SQL using a drag-and-drop visual tool? Sweet! You can reproduce the SQL using M/DAX/VBA in Excel? Righteous! I’m betting you won’t be disappointed: BTW – I’ve consistently found that <date_count> features are the most useful for uncovering new business insights, especially with machine learning models. Stay healthy and happy data sleuthing! #datascience #machinelearning #analytics #businessanalytics #dataanalytics

My sales manager always lectured me to uncover problems and dig for pain. My problem was most of my prospects would come to me and talk about goals they had. They'd say things like: "We're looking for a more efficient accounting platform" "We have a goal to expand our brand awareness" "We need a way to process invoices more quickly" ___ I would get stuck because I didn't know how to turn goals into problems/pain. Eventually I learned that you just need to "flip" the goal the prospect shares with you on its head and inquire about the inverse of that goal. Sounds like: Prospect: "We're looking for a more efficient accounting platform" You: "Could you tell me about the ways your current accounting system isn't efficient enough?" OR Prospect: "We have a goal to expand our brand awareness" You: "Is that because you feel like folks don't know you exist today?" OR Prospect: "We need a way to process invoices more quickly" You: "Is that because invoices are not getting processed quickly enough?" ___ Behind every goal is a problem, it's up to you to unearth it.

During my time as a Navy SEAL, precision and thorough analysis were not just practices but NECESSITIES! The "Five Whys" method exemplifies this approach outside the battlefield, presenting a clear path to problem-solving. Here's how it worked for the Lincoln Memorial's unexpected challenge: 1️⃣ Why is the memorial dirty?Because of bird droppings. 2️⃣ Why are there bird droppings?Birds are attracted to the area. 3️⃣ Why are birds attracted? They eat the spiders there. 4️⃣ Why are there spiders? Spiders eat the insects 5️⃣ Why are there insects? They're attracted to the lights left on at night. The solution? Adjust the lighting to reduce the insects to deter the spiders and birds, directly addressing the root of the cleanliness issue. This method isn't just for maintaining national monuments; it's a powerful tool for any leader or problem-solver in any field. The next time you're faced with a challenge, I urge you to employ the "Five Whys." Get deep. Understand the problem fully before jumping to solutions. By sharing this method, you're not just passing along a problem-solving tool; you're empowering others to think critically and act decisively. Be the one to inspire change, to lead by example.

🤔 Design portfolio pro-tip: Level up your user flow communication through showing your decision tree. While showcasing basic user flows is a good start, hiring managers often go beyond that. In a sea of portfolios, distinguish yourself by demonstrating: 1. Deep user understanding: Embed user insights and pain points within your flow charts. 2. Creative problem-solving: Highlight how your user flows tackle specific challenges and optimize the user journey. 3. Impactful storytelling: Weave a narrative through your flows, showcasing how they influenced design decisions and drove positive outcomes. Remember, hiring managers want to see evidence of your design thinking and strategic impact, not just technical proficiency at creating a user flow chart. Instead, show your thought process: 1. What are the different types of flows you considered? 2. How did you make a decision on the end result? 3. What research, log data, audits or user feedback did you consider to make your final decision? For example, in this diagram below, my decision process could look something like this: DECISION Reason 1: Reduced onboarding steps by 3 screens Reason 2: Reduced onboarding abandonment by 30% Reason 3: Allow users to skip part of the onboarding flow and return later, increasing signups by x% Let me know if you have any questions! #design #portfolio #portfolioshowcase #uxcommunity #uxdesign #uxdesigner

**BRING SOLUTIONS. NOT PROBLEMS. STOP SAYING SORRY. START SAYING THANK YOU.** I truly believe we should apply more management principles to a number of things. Politics aside, a great example of this is the way in which the Prime Minister of Greece is managing the country - as if it was a company. It is interesting that the majority of times we tend to think those principles can't be applied to social or public institutions or problems because they lack the "people side of things". But companies are made of people. As much as schools, NGOs, hospitals, governments. Reframing our way of thinking is a challenging exercise but as for many others "practice makes perfect". There are many examples of reframing our way of thinking and even our way of writing or speaking. A good example is a tip one of my mentors gave me once: she asked me "How many times do you say sorry when you speak or when replying back to a client, or even when delivering something?" Stop saying sorry and start saying thank you - (read the full article here for context: https://lnkd.in/dsrzsTpP). E.g. Instead of "Sorry for asking for help" - "Thank you for your support". Ultimately this is also part of something my first manager taught me about: Growth mindset. Widely proven and tested it shows that we can develop this capability of seeing problems as opportunities and that reframing helps in this process. This is something that we should do in our teams or even feedback sessions. The motto is "Bring solutions not problems". How? #1 The solution is in the problem. But the solution is the focus. Always acknowledge the problem but don't reach out to your manager, team or colleagues to complain and discuss the problem. Discuss the problem but present your solutions (ideally A, B and C). Do not give feedback without sharing a solution. #2 Trust the data. We tend to argue we can't measure everything and that sometimes it is difficult to back up solutions and even problems on data. I would challenge that. Always try to find data even if qualitative. This applies to feedback, performance, projects, people. Trust the data and use it as your main ally! # Develop your growth mindset. This can sound a bit abstract but it is way more scientific than what you could imagine. If you don't trust me go read and learn from Carol Dweck. When I started my first full time job I was managing a quite complex portfolio and it was difficult for me to understand how to prioritise. My team challenged me to present a solution that could help. And that was the kick-off of my growth mindset (might share it in a post one day). EXTRA: This applies to Portugal as well. We have too many people finding problems and not as many finding + building solutions. I know this is a way more complex problem but we need to start somewhere. In our companies, communities and families. It starts with every single one of us. Today. Not tomorrow. Not in 2024. Today!