The Power of Two in Problem Solving

I was thinking today about a project that someone had asked me to help with. And it was fairly complex.

In that the company already had a system, which had certain constraints. And it was unclear whether the operational model that they wanted to run was possible on this system.

And if so, what hacks would need to be made to make it happen.

As I thought about it... it hit me that this was a more complex problem than the ones I've had to deal with for awhile.

Product management is typically relatively superficial problem solving and much more project management in my view.

So I would typically just use my tree structue problem solving approach and keep breaking the problem down into component problems.

Which also kind of works a bit here.. but i found there were a lot of things I wanted to discuss. Because discussion adds dimension to the problem solving process.

Just the act of voicing out the problem and hearing it often gives me new ideas and angles on a problem. Which is why I love working with another smart person on any complex problem.

It's a lot like some of the quantitative modeling case studies I was given in my MBA a long long time ago.

If I just sat in front of the complex model by myself it was easy to get stuck.

But the minute I worked on it with my friend we would just keep moving forward by verbally discussing the issues and solving for them together.

Through dialogue the quality of thought and problem solving got better.

Which takes me to my next point...

For the past three months I have done 1-2 sessions per week on Growthmentor.com

Growthmentor.com is a subscription-based service where you can set up calls with experts on various topics. There are particularly many folks from growth and digital marketing teams. An area i've wanted to improve my skills on.

And I use the folks as my sounding board... on issues i'm facing at my startup, Therapada.com. But also on issues that I am facing on client projects.

And I absolutely love this format of getting an external opinion. Some great ideas have come out of it.

I now do this style of problem solving almost systematically and view this as kind of a 'secret weapon'

Meaning that it is rare that you have a steady flow of smart folks that you have access to.. and you don't really need to waste much time on introductions.. but rather can just jump directly into a hairy problem.

And the reality is that in my view its kind of a myth that you can do this with colleagues at your company. Why?

• Because they have their own goals, and may not have much time or motivation to assist.
• They will not be completely impartial as they already probably have a set way of thinking about the problems in the company
• You may not be able to disclose everything you are thinking as openly

When I reflect if i'd solved problems like this earlier.. I would have made much higher quality decisions on a number of topics. Particularly as it relates to my startup.

Read it on my blog: The Power of Two using Growthmentor.com