Don’t believe the hype — Why you need to question everything!

As designers, we are problem solvers. We must constantly observe, assess, and question how we can make things better in this world.

Often problem solving involves doing research and testing. It is great to look at research and see previous patterns of behavior but those thing often times do not provide you with the information we need in order to solve the problem at hand.

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired. -Jules Renard

What’s the answer?

Question everything?

You say, ‘I don’t have time to question everything’. I say you do because what ends up happening is rework because decisions were made not to question things in the first place.

Where do you begin? You begin with asking the following questions…

What is the problem?

Who is having the problem?

Why are they having the problem?

When is the problem occurring?

How did the problem start?

This needs to be done each and every time you have a problem to solve because it gives you fresh eyes to a situation. Without fresh eyes, you may be destined to repeat the same problem over again. Lessons are repeated until learned.

With these questions you are primed to start problem solving and make informed decision making based on some validated information vs making a decision from a past solution.