Originally posted on LinkedIn
😍 Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.
We jump to an “ideal solution” way too fast — without truly understanding the problem first.
What’s the root problem? Who does it hurt or matter to? It’s not just the user — it’s an entire ecosystem. Who makes up that ecosystem?
In higher education, the problem looks different depending on whether you’re a student, a parent, a professor, a school administrator, an edtech entrepreneur, a ministry regulator, an employer, or a funder… And the list goes on.
How many of us talk to 10 users and then immediately jump to building? You have to go much deeper — better to talk to 10 different types of actors than 10 people from the same group.
Yesterday we had our Systems Thinking and Design Thinking session at the Action Lab with Natalia Rodríguez Triana. An absolute masterclass in understanding your problem — and falling in love with it.
What about you — how do you research your problem? Do you keep doing it after launch? How do you use technology to support the process?
