I gave this talk at IA Summit in Baltimore in April 2013.
At the start of a project, not only do we not know the answers yet, we don’t even truly know which questions to ask. And yet straight away we’re asked to provide project plans and timelines, to list and describe our deliverables, and to outline the exact steps we intend to take.
So, to avoid the discomfort of not having immediate answers, we map out a methodology for ourselves and apply it to every subsequent project.
But this approach doesn’t serve our clients well. We make decisions too early, and end up solving the wrong problems. We keep going through the motions even when we realise we’re heading down the wrong path, because we don’t want to be seen as inconsistent.