But I’d reframe it slightly. The work of product leadership isn’t simply defining the problem and handing it to the team. It’s creating the conditions where people can engage with the situation from multiple elevations and perspectives.
This resonates. One thing I'd add: it's not just continuous across layers — it's continuous across time. Your users are evolving. The competitive landscape is shifting. The context you diagnosed six months ago may not hold today. This is one reason continuous discovery and even high-velocity experimentation, done well, isn't just about shipping faster. It's about staying calibrated to a problem space that's always moving.
💯. There is no perfect approach to any given problem, at any point in time. Exploration is key because — hopefully — it presumes an authentic sense of curiosity.
I like the “dancing” part since I was once a younger version of myself and spent time break dancing in high school and college. Although this particular flavor of dance was very much a solo exercise, you did have to coordinate with the audience and your team to win. And to crush your opponent you had to literally dance with (against) them to uncover the holes and gaps in their strategy and react real-time to exploit them.
Great post. The idea of problem articulation as a "dance" rather than a destination really hits home it’s easy to get stuck at one elevation and miss the crux entirely.
To add my two cents contribution to this post, I framed the 8 types of questions to arrive at a problem articulation through a hypothetical "loan abandonment" issue in a banking app. Here’s how those 8 types of questions look in such example:
• Exploratory: Is this a technical bug, or a fundamental lack of trust in digital lending?
• Definitional: What exactly counts as "abandoned" exiting at the first screen or the final submission?
• Contextual: Is the user at a car dealership needing speed, or at home comparing rates?
• Descriptive: At which specific form field are 60% of our users actually dropping off?
• Explanatory: Why do they leave there? Is the file size limit for tax docs too small for mobile?
• Strategic: How does instant approval change our market position against traditional banks?
• Generative: Could we scrap the form and pull data via API or a long-term chat interface instead?
• Evaluative: Is that "Help" tooltip actually reducing friction, or just signaling frustration?
Navigating the layers prescribed by John definitely helps stop product analysts from jumping to "solutions" before they even know which game they are playing. Thanks for the framework!
This resonates. One thing I'd add: it's not just continuous across layers — it's continuous across time. Your users are evolving. The competitive landscape is shifting. The context you diagnosed six months ago may not hold today. This is one reason continuous discovery and even high-velocity experimentation, done well, isn't just about shipping faster. It's about staying calibrated to a problem space that's always moving.
💯. There is no perfect approach to any given problem, at any point in time. Exploration is key because — hopefully — it presumes an authentic sense of curiosity.
I like the “dancing” part since I was once a younger version of myself and spent time break dancing in high school and college. Although this particular flavor of dance was very much a solo exercise, you did have to coordinate with the audience and your team to win. And to crush your opponent you had to literally dance with (against) them to uncover the holes and gaps in their strategy and react real-time to exploit them.
Dancing with the problem. Love that.
Great post. The idea of problem articulation as a "dance" rather than a destination really hits home it’s easy to get stuck at one elevation and miss the crux entirely.
To add my two cents contribution to this post, I framed the 8 types of questions to arrive at a problem articulation through a hypothetical "loan abandonment" issue in a banking app. Here’s how those 8 types of questions look in such example:
• Exploratory: Is this a technical bug, or a fundamental lack of trust in digital lending?
• Definitional: What exactly counts as "abandoned" exiting at the first screen or the final submission?
• Contextual: Is the user at a car dealership needing speed, or at home comparing rates?
• Descriptive: At which specific form field are 60% of our users actually dropping off?
• Explanatory: Why do they leave there? Is the file size limit for tax docs too small for mobile?
• Strategic: How does instant approval change our market position against traditional banks?
• Generative: Could we scrap the form and pull data via API or a long-term chat interface instead?
• Evaluative: Is that "Help" tooltip actually reducing friction, or just signaling frustration?
Navigating the layers prescribed by John definitely helps stop product analysts from jumping to "solutions" before they even know which game they are playing. Thanks for the framework!
So true, reminded me of the YouTube search story from Shishir Mehrotra -- https://coda.io/@shishir/eigenquestions-the-art-of-framing-problems