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A faster coconut-cracking machine may be easy to picture, price, and build. But if the goal is to sell more coconuts, that proposal does not prove cracking capacity is what is holding sales back. The team first needs to identify the obstacle and the change required to remove it.
Why a concrete proposal can get ahead of the need
A specific solution gives a team something tangible to discuss. People can estimate its cost, assign work, and debate how to build it. That activity can feel like progress even when the team has not established that the proposal addresses the problem.
In the coconut example, “sell more coconuts” is the desired outcome. A faster cracking machine is one possible response, based on the assumption that cracking throughput is limiting sales. Unless that constraint is established, the machine is a candidate—not a demonstrated need.
Remove the proposal and test the reasoning
Temporarily set the proposed solution aside and ask: “Can the team still explain the desired outcome, the obstacle that currently prevents it and what actually needs to change?”
- If the team can describe the outcome and a supported obstacle without naming the machine, it has a basis for defining what a solution must accomplish.
- If the explanation depends on the machine itself, the proposal may be standing in for an unexamined problem or assumption.
This check does not rule out the proposal. It changes its status from presumed answer to candidate solution, to be judged against the need once that need is clear.
Work from the objective to a candidate solution
Keep the reasoning in this order: objective → problem or need → requirement → solution. Each stage answers a different question.
1. State the objective
Describe the outcome the team wants, such as selling more coconuts. Keep it separate from a proposed way to achieve it.
2. Identify the problem or need
Determine what currently prevents that outcome. In the example, the claim that cracking capacity is the limiting factor needs to be established; the goal alone does not establish it.
3. Define the requirement
Translate the identified need into what a successful change must do. A requirement gives the team a basis for assessing options instead of letting the first proposal define success.
4. Assess candidate solutions
Consider the faster machine alongside any other candidates the team identifies, and evaluate each against the established need and requirements. The proposal may still be the right answer, but it should earn that place through fit rather than familiarity or specificity.
Rank #4
Keep the proposal, but make the need do the deciding
A solution-first proposal can be useful: it may point toward a worthwhile possibility. The failure is treating that possibility as proof of the problem. Establish the outcome, obstacle, and necessary change first; then decide whether the proposed solution meets them.
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