Have you ever wondered what separates entrepreneurs like Kevin Systrom, Elon Musk, or companies like Apple, Airbnb, and Amazon from their competition?

The secret to the success of these admirable entrepreneurs and companies is their detailed understanding of problems they want to solve. Accurate analysis of the problem is the starting point for everything they do. As a result, they are able to make better decisions and create the impact they want.

The foundation for any successful business is solving a problem. It’s no surprise that the skill of analyzing (and solving) problems is high in demand in the tech landscape. Most employers rate it as one of the most important skills they look for in job candidates.

Hiring managers regularly identify problem-solving as the Number One Missing Skill among recent grads. Following this trend, executives worldwide are the first to recognize that their organizations are bad at problem diagnosis. This flaw results in significant losses, financially and energetically, to businesses of all sizes and scales.

“Hiring managers called out critical thinking and problem solving as the most commonly lacking soft skills.”

— Payscale.com

In fact, effective problem solving is so scarce that Google instructed their managers to hire only those employees who could skillfully articulate and analyze problems —even if they did not perfectly fit the stated job requirements.

Unfortunately, not many people realize this is a skill that can be practiced and improved. Problem-solving is often not taught at all or not well enough. We need more professionals to learn how to solve problems in a creative, systematic, and effective way to make better decisions.

“We get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of the problems that we solve”

— Elon Musk

Problem-solving isn’t a soft skill —it’s the superpower any industry needs. Yes, it is possible to become better problem solvers. And it is my mission to show you how.

The pattern is clear: We tend to quickly switch into “Solution Mode” without first checking whether we understand the true nature of the original problem.

“Managers tend to switch quickly into solution mode without checking whether they really understand the problem.”

— hbr.org

Elon Musk, Kevin Systrom, Amazon, and Airbnb have all used this approach for years. I’ve reverse-engineered their approach to develop a system that could be taught and applied to (almost) any problem, in any field, anywhere, at any time.

The Approach of Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom

In a keynote Kevin Systrom gave at the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, he explained how we are wired to focus our attention on solutions. Kevin recognizes that solutions are “the easy part.” The hard part is finding the problem to solve. 

We seek a perfect user experience or a necessary algorithm tweak. But it turns out solutions are easy to come up with once problems are set into their rightful place. That’s how he and his team formed Instagram. It was only after they fully understood the problems people have with mobile photos, that they were able to focus on the right solutions.  

Amazon’s Working Backwards Method

Similarly to Systrom, at Amazon they use a similar approach called Working Backward where the team can draft a mock press announcement to make sure they fully thought through the customer problems and the solution offered. As explained by a former Amazon director, Ian McAllister, now the head of product at Airbnb:

“There is an approach called "working backwards" that is widely used at Amazon. We try to work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it. While working backwards can be applied to any specific product decision, using this approach is especially important when developing new products or features." 

— Ian McAllister, Director at Airbnb

Airbnb’s Problem Statement

Likewise, at Airbnb they also share this practice of being deeply understanding problems before generating solutions. A former Product Manager shares in an honest blog post what he learned after seven at the company:

“Crafting and aligning on a problem statement is the single most important step in solving any problem. I’ve consistently seen simple projects with vague problem statements go in circles for weeks and months, while complex projects with strong problem statements sail smoothly.”

— Lenny Rachitsky, Growth PM Lead @Airbnb

Elon Musk’s First Principles Thinking

In an interview, Elon Musk explains how our reasoning usually works by analogy, we choose actions that are like something else that was done or like what other people are doing. It's easier for us to think this way because it saves us mental energy. 

Instead, Musk explains we should first boil things down to their fundamental truths the must be true, and reason up from there. He calls this approach First Principles, and it enables us to understand the true nature of a problem and empowers independent thinking that is free from the common thread of analogies. 

The Problem-Hacking® Method

Take a look at how these ultra-successful entrepreneurs and leading companies approach problems, the pattern is clear: effective problem solving is counterintuitive. We tend to quickly switch into “Solution Mode” without first checking whether we understand the true nature of the original problem.

The process becomes even more complicated when problems need to be solved in teams, and participants need to get in sync with the decisions taken.

I’ve seen it play out in countless meeting rooms. Where the ease of jumping to the solution was far more tempting than the hard task of analyzing the problem and defining metrics for success. I’ve seen whiteboards loaded with countless possibilities and the struggle to narrow down to one effective course of action. The good news is it happens to everyone, even the smartest and experienced managers I’ve worked with in my career.

That's why we need a framework to guide us. After years of hands-on experience and research, I’ve reverse-engineered the approach we’ve seen work for so many others and built a model that anyone can use. That's Problem Hacking®.

Problem Hacking is a professional decision-making system designed to accelerate business results. By drilling down to the root cause and building up effective mitigations product managers and entrepreneurs can better create the impact they desire and get in sync with their teams along the way.

The best part about Problem Hacking is that I have stress-tested the process for you. Problem Hacking has proven to be invaluable throughout my career, I’ve used it hundreds of times to generate success. In one case it even helped turn a small, six-employee startup with $4M in funding into a growing company with more than 50 employees and $40M+ in backing. And we did this in only one year.

After two years of running dozens of Problem Hacking® workshops, I’m pleased to say that it’s working. Hundreds of professionals have adopted the model to fit their own needs. 

Problem Hacking has become a methodology I use with all my clients. Whether aligning managers with teams or uniting members of a group, this methodology empowers making better decisions. It has been tested and adopted by designers, UX experts, product managers, executives, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and investors who have benefitted from my workshops and coaching. I hope it helps you, too. 

“What makes a decision great is not that it has a great outcome. A great decision is the result of a good process, and that process must include an attempt to accurately represent our own state of knowledge.” 

— Annie Duke