There’s nothing worse than solving the wrong problem. It’s bad on many fronts—consumption of valuable resources, mislaid expectations of company leadership, and frustration of the solvers.
The main reason for solving the wrong problem is confusion between symptom and disease. It’s often difficult to tell the difference, even for professionals like us. The key is a rigorous diagnosis. However, in the heat of battle, it’s almost impossible to make time for that. With our fires constantly burning, not-enough-time is situation normal and our diagnoses suffer.