Years ago, I was working on an assignment to redesign the customer relationship management solution for a customer. Spent hours to understand the process and days to reflect on the problems.
Six months have passed, a design was in place and implementation was on. We were happy to have found solution to all problems without shaking up the existing solution. But wait! Three more months, we have started seeing new problems. A few of them were the old ones in new dress.
Then it dawned upon me. Problems happen, and they would happen. But overdoing “as-is” analysis sometimes don’t change the frame as we keep on seeing the future in the lens of the present. And, in the process of validating assumptions, we become the hostage of our assumptions.
What if we have asked ourselves, “can we think of a different solution?” Or we would have the humility to ask the experts, “can we think from the scratch and have a wider view?” Can we think with a blank slate or with a new perspective? Blank slate always gives a wider view. We can edit out information later rather than keeping them in our blind spot.
It’s not just about understanding the context, the reference points (“as-is”) – it’s also about narrowing the blind spot.