I have seen this play out so many times. Everyone says the same thing- the first step to solving a problem is understanding it. It is something we all know. It is something every manager or coach reminds us about. And yet, when the pressure to deliver is high, when speed becomes the metric, teams almost always rush into solutions. The thinking is simple: if we can get to the solution faster, we can capture the opportunity faster.

The irony is that when you ask people if they understand the problem, the answer is always yes. Of course they do — it is common sense. But when you dig deeper and ask them to explain the problem, what comes out are mostly assumptions. In most cases, the problem hasn’t really been understood. What is even more interesting is that this happens a lot with smart people. Because they are confident in their ability to connect dots quickly, they move straight to solutions. But confidence is not the same as clarity.

Part of the challenge is in how problems get discussed. A project gets proposed, someone talks about what customers are saying, why it matters, and what needs to be solved. Usually this happens in a thirty-minute or one-hour meeting, where everyone is listening and nodding. But in that short span, no one actually has the time or context to really understand the problem. What sticks is a mix of highlights and personal interpretation, and the group moves quickly into debating solutions. Solution A versus solution B versus solution C. What often gets missed is that no one is solving the same problem.

A few practices can make a big difference. When presenting a problem, it helps to use a simple visual or a short document — something that goes beyond words in a meeting and gives people a reference point to come back to. And whenever you are in a meeting about a project, always start with the problem itself: here is why we are here, here is what we are solving for, here’s why it matters. It may sound repetitive, but that repetition builds alignment. And if someone hasn’t really understood, that is the moment where questions start to surface.

On the solution side, one thing that works well is to recommend that anyone proposing a solution should first explain the problem in their own words. That simple step flushes out misalignment. And when approaching a problem, it is always helpful to begin with the mindset that you do not know enough yet. Ask why, and then ask why again. Keep verifying. The more you revisit the problem, the sharper it becomes.

And if you ever notice this happening in your team or project, where solutions are flying around but the problem itself isn’t clear, the best thing you can do is just raise your hand. Ask, “What exactly is the problem are we solving? Why should we solve it? How will we know that our solution actually works? And if it does, how will we track it?” These questions might feel uncomfortable in the moment. People might get a little irked. But in reality, you are doing the team a huge service. Because the cost of not asking them is much higher.

Over and over again, it is clear that most teams do not fail because their solutions were bad. They fail because the problem was not defined well enough to begin with. Everyone believes they have understood it. But in practice, they have not. And until the problem is truly clear, no solution — no matter how fast or creative — will actually work. After all, without the full context, even the smartest LLM will not be able to generate the right answer — so what chance do we have, as mere humans, if we skip that step?