What's the problem?
I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve sat in where we were discussing some solution and the “problem” was nowhere in the realm of anybody’s thought. Faces look at you with surprise when you finally stand up and say “Wait a minute, what’s the problem we are trying to solve?” Over the years, I’ve heard all kinds of unbelievable responses. I’ve heard things like “we are just here to implement the solution and not ask questions like that.”
In the traditional software development cycle in large companies, the “creative” people (who are prone to ask questions like this) are often plugged into the middle of a waterfall process that is very rigid and beyond the point where you can ask many questions. When I was working at usaa.com, we “creative” people often had a saying, “shut up and color.” It was a joke, but unfortunately, the joke was often on us.
Joe Dyer, one of my ex-colleagues from ussa.com who is now moved on to travelocity.com developed a presentation called IA Spy School. He draws a parallel between his day in the Air Force as an intelligence officer and information architecture. He is right, all about user experience starts with the contacts you have in your “spy” network. You can draw all the boxes and arrows you want but if you don’t have an audience for your “problem” questions, you are doomed to “shut up and color.”
So if you find yourself wanting to ask the big question, think about it first. Are you deep into the execution of a project, way beyond asking questions. How bad do you want to fall on your own sword? You might just want to save yourself some grief and begin working a network of people upstream from your waterfall project.
Bottom line, its not about what you know, its about who you know and who you can influence.
What do you do when you are in a meeting and its obvious nobody knows what the problem is?
