Avoid 3 Miracle Problems
1 min read
Designers are always tempted to solve problems too far out on the time scale. This is an occupational hazard of creativity which will always veer to the "what if". As a result designers will spend energy solving problems that require multiple preceding “miracles” to be true before their design or feature can be valuable. They will ignore or be blind to this.
I would tell teams that this is a "3 miracle problem" you need three miracles to happen before this feature can succeed.
3 miracle problems show up in two contexts:
Adversarial - teams proactively designing solutions to adversarial attacks or harms well before it is an issue or may even be an issue. Solving complex adversarial problems in the earliest days of the product is not valuable. The chances that the team will accurately predict the ways in which adversaries attack the system is low and therefore the prescribed solution is probably wrong. That isn’t to say to not be mindful of bad actors or harm but do not let teams sit here too long.
Designing features at scale when scale is not yet achieved - It is natural for teams to want to design features as if their product is already successful. Designers are usually attracted to products or problems because they are excited about the future potential, often more than the current reality. As a result they will often design out at the edges in the form of “North Stars” or “Visions”. They will pitch features that aren't valuable to the current reality.
In both of these cases, it is easy to get teams back on track. Asking the question “what would need to be true for us to build this?” forces teams to think about the necessary conditions that need to be present. Get them to work on those first.