I caught myself doing something I do a lot: I’d already decided what I needed. I knew the exact tool, the exact product, the exact feature that would fix it. I walked in with the solution pre-loaded and just wanted help executing it.
But that’s skipping the actual work. The better move isn’t to assume I know the answer, it’s to describe the real problem honestly and let the design follow from that. Ask what is this actually, what’s underneath it, what would genuinely solve it. The solution I’m reaching for is usually a guess dressed up as certainty.
When you jump straight to the product, you stop doing the deeper thinking the problem deserves. Name the problem first. The right solution is often not the one you walked in holding.
Next time you’re sure you know exactly what tool you need, have you actually named the problem, or just guessed at the fix?