

Hold off on proposing solutions - crystalis
http://lesswrong.com/lw/ka/hold_off_on_proposing_solutions/

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lmkg
This also holds true for user feedback. Users are great for identifying
problems and pain points. They're absolutely terrible at recommending
improvements, for a plethora of reasons. They can't see past their own issue,
they can't see far beyond the present design, they have no idea of the
internals, they don't realize or properly value unintended consequences of
their suggestion, and they often quite simply don't have a good sense of
design. Making the most of user feedback requires filtering out the feedback
itself and identifying the underlying issue that's generating the feedback.
Even if your solution ends up resembling one of the suggestions, it's most
helpful to understand the issues driving that suggestion.

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nooneelse
This is only tenuously connected, but Less Wrong is, for me, much like
tvtropes.com is for some people. I usually find I'm opening an exponentially
increasing number of tabs, as every post has several interesting links.

Here is the point in this comment where I would usually throw out a "I resolve
that" or "what I should do" kind of solution for this issue... but that would
seem quite counter to the message of this entry. Hmm.

~~~
philh
I have the same problem. Putting it in my RSS reader has helped to some
extent.

I can think of several reasons why this might be, but in the spirit of the
post I should probably not say them. :)

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delano
This is a standard technique in B2B sales. Instead of trying to sell a
predefined product (aka a solution), have a conversation with the customer
about the issues that they want to address. It's a reasonable approach for
complex problems because you have no idea whether your product is the right
fit until you're aware of all the little details.

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alabut
This attacks something that user researcher Steve Portigal calls
"solutioneering" and the phrase has stuck in my head since I saw his ixdasf
talk last year. He led the audience through an exercise to show a typical
client project, where we went through several rounds of breaking down a
consumer product and its uses. It was even harder than I thought it would be
to stick to discussing the problem rather than jumping straight to possible
fixes or improvements.

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ronnoch
This is also discussed in Methods of Rationality, chapter 25 (Yudkowsky's
Harry Potter fanfic):
[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M...](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality)

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jrp
I wonder whether it really would help with just one person. I suspect part of
the problem with groups is that the one who proposed a solution will take a
social hit if it is rejected. So, with just you, that shouldn't come up.

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jacabado
How does this relate to the TDD mindset?

