Idea
What it actually takes to understand a problem
Notes on the gap between reading about a problem and living inside it long enough to see the real shape of it.
Proximity changes the question
Research from a distance can tell us that a problem exists. It rarely tells us why the problem has survived.
That requires time with the people doing the work: watching what happens before and after the obvious friction, noticing the exceptions, and understanding which constraints are technical and which are organizational.
Workarounds are evidence
A workaround is not merely inefficiency. It is a record of what the current system fails to provide. The best ones reveal requirements that a clean process diagram will miss.
We try to earn enough context to describe the problem in the language of the people living it. Only then do possible solutions become useful to discuss.