Monthly Archives: March 2016

Focus on ‘Why’ instead of ‘How’

Knowing the how is necessary.  Understanding the why is illuminating.

Knowing how to perform a task is necessary.  Understanding why the task needs to be done can help you achieve a deeper understanding of the task and the process to which it is related.why what how

Knowing how to implement a solution in Salesforce is necessary but understanding why the solution is needed is much more important and illuminating.   Many times users will ask for changes based on their perception of how to fix the problem.  These changes sometimes address the immediate need but not the underlying problem that created the issue in the first place.  By asking users why they need a specific change, the analyst can get to the heart of the problem and help find the best solution to address the underlying problem so the issue will not happen again.

According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, people who become focused on how to achieve a goal may have a harder time achieving their aims than people who think abstractly about why they want to do something.

Question

Can you share an example when knowing the ‘why’ helped with finding the best solution?