Some Problems Aren't Failures
Understanding the Difference Between a Success-Generated Problem and a Mistake
The rates of cataracts have sky-rocketed over the twentieth century. What was a relatively rare condition a century ago now is much more common, affecting millions of people. The obvious question to ask is why?
Well, the reason for the rise of cataracts is pretty simple: life expectancy. People are now living much longer, and long enough (on average globally) to have the opportunity to get them.
In other words, we didn’t start getting more cataracts because of something we did wrong—but because of something we did right.
Here are some examples:
Your onboarding process is a chaotic mess and new hires are confused for weeks—because you went from twelve people to sixty in a year, and the “just ask whoever’s nearby” system that worked fine at twelve has no chance at sixty.
Two teams keep stepping on each other’s release schedules and the coordination overhead is brutal—because you finally have two teams shipping fast enough that their work collides, where a year ago a single team had nothing to collide with.
Identifying a Success-Generated Problem
The trap to design against first: this frame is seductive enough to become an excuse. “Our problem is actually proof we’re winning” is exactly what a complacent team tells itself right before it fails.
