Ask First, Build Second

Stakeholders don’t need you to solve their problems. They need to know you understand what the problems actually are.

There’s a pattern in failed coordination. One group builds a solution. They’re confident it addresses exactly what another group needs. They present it. The other group thanks them, never uses it, and builds something different six months later.

What happened? No one asked. The solution addressed a problem that either didn’t exist or wasn’t the right dimension of the real problem.

Shared understanding isn’t automatic. It gets built through questions, not assumptions. You can’t coordinate action if you’re not coordinating perception first.

Before you build anything for a stakeholder, confirm you’re seeing the same landscape. Otherwise it’s just two groups moving confidently in different directions, both convinced they’re aligned because no one wanted to admit they were confused.

The question isn’t “what do they need?” It’s “what problem are they actually trying to solve, and have I confirmed that with them?”