Jumping to Conclusions
The assumption is a mother of all f*** ups. We all know that, right? But did you know that Assumption has an evil stepsister, waiting for you to test your assumptions — and Jump to conclusions from these results alone.
In one of my previous posts, I was writing about why You Are Wrong and that you should test your assumption. Ask, test and learn new things and get new perspectives along the way. However, when you do this, your work is (sorry to say this) far from done.
Trap #1: I asked 100 people and they all agree
Isn’t it nice when you have an assumption or a hypothesis, and whomever you ask — they all confirm what you thought from the beginning? Or even if they all disagree, it doesn’t really matter which way it goes. You are now full of confidence that you can get things right from here on.
It may be obvious to some of the readers, but I cannot stress that enough: you may be the reason why they all answer the same.
I am sure you don’t mean to influence them — but no matter how the question is set up, there is a certain bias in it. Sorry.
So what can you do? Well, get the results, reframe them and take another round. With different people. Maybe someone other than you should do the questioning. Simply — test and retest.
Trap #2: I will help you
The other, a probably bigger trap is that people are aware of what you are doing. And they want to help you. If only they knew how difficult they are making your work when they are trying to help.
Be careful and listen closely when the answers are too perfect. Too complete. Too detailed. These all can mean that answers are not spontaneous. These are well thought-through lines. Usually, they include your bias, interviewee’s bias and — the worst — interviewee’s assumption about what you want to hear them say. Here’s an example:
I was doing an interview with employees regarding their customers. How they meet on an everyday basis, what do the customers say, etc. But because the interview took place at the time of the reorganization (people changing titles, teams, and responsibilities), they barely talked about the customers. They were talking about how they deal with customers (so I could tell this to the next person), how software helps them and similar. However, my project with them was to change the product and communications, not to take part in the reorganization.
As seen from the example — when people think they know what you are doing — they want to help. And it is your job to get the information you need.
Trap #3: The solution trap
Maybe your paradigm is solution focused. Maybe it is appreciative. Maybe it is something else, but you simply refuse to talk about the problems.
And this is all very good — but not every paradigm has a place in every situation. When trying to change the processes, software or the product, when you really want to serve the customer — through content or oterwise — you have to go on and touch the dark side as well. You cannot simply envision how the future looks like. You have to understand the underlying problems. And all the good stuff too! Otherwise, you can create a beautiful future, eliminating all the old problems just the way the employees or customers like … simply to create new problems that never existed before.
What to do to avoid jumping to conclusions? (shortlist)
So please, before you think you know what comes next:
- test and retest (and retest)
- make sure you got the answers to your questions, and not to the expectations of the interviewees
- make sure you understand the context of what is good and what is bad before you suggest an improvement.
