A Service Design principle about problem-solving.
I'm trying to lose weight. I try a few things. Nothing really works. I read about various techniques, but they all seem so different. And even science is all over the place!
“Man, that's so complex! I'm gonna stay fat”.
That's when I have a little “aha” moment: “If I eat waaaaaay less, I'll lose weight.”. So I try this. But in an extreme way. I eat as little as it feels possible for me. It's an extreme challenge, but it works. Is it the smartest way to lose weight? Clearly not. But it works.
When it comes to problem-solving, we can get lost and demotivated in the same way. We try a few things, and they don't work. We try to inform ourselves, and the only thing that happens is information overload. We lose motivation. The problem feels too complex to fix.
In such moments we can ask ourselves:
What's the one obvious thing that we can do in an extreme way that would work?
And then commit to that blindly for a long enough. Sometimes we don't need to find the smartest and more innovative idea.
Little side notes
- This is the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
- I was able to reduce the lengths by 18.61% compared to the first version.
- Once adapted, even more, this principle will be part of the book "Service Design Principles 201-300"
- As always feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.