The Understand Work First

Bangaly Kaba introduced a reframe: most people do 'identify, justify, execute' - decide what to do, find data to back it up. The better approach is 'understand, identify, execute.'

Watch a parent with a crying toddler. The instinct is to fix: snack, nap, show. Identify solution, justify it ('probably tired'), execute. But what if we started with understand?

'The tendency for a lot of product people is to jump to the solution.'

Sit with them. Observe. Ask what happened. Maybe they're not hungry or tired - maybe their favorite toy broke and they don't have words for grief yet. Maybe something happened at school they can't articulate.

Bangaly's team spent months trying to fix Indian growth with experiments. Nothing worked. When they flew to Delhi and actually sat in people's homes watching them use the app, they found the real problem in days.

Understand first. The fixing comes after - and it's usually faster because you're fixing the right thing.