Have you spend days trying to solve a problem, using time, resources and people only to realize that what you fixed (or trying to fix) was actually not the real problem?
This is called the XY problem. For example
- User wants to do X.
- User doesn’t know how to do X, but thinks they can fumble their way to a solution if they can just manage to do Y.
- User doesn’t know how to do Y either.
- User asks for help with Y.
- Others try to help user with Y, but are confused because Y seems like a strange problem to want to solve.
- After much interaction and wasted time, it finally becomes clear that the user really wants help with X, and that Y wasn’t even a suitable solution for X.
The XY problem is asking about your attempted solution rather than your actual problem . This leads to wasted time and energy for both the people asking for help and those providing help.
Let’s learn about how to ask for help