Find Someone Else Who Has Solved Your Problem Before

Teresa Torres describes a design problem with a job posting form's location options, where combining multiple location types and telecommute rules created excessive complexity. Instead of designing from scratch, her team was asked to survey how other job boards handled it, and this borrowing approach simplified their use cases. She argues that teams should first look for bright spots within their own organization and then at best practices elsewhere, drawing on the Heath brothers' ideas from Decisive. The practice matters because consistency helps users learn products, and building the habit of checking for existing solutions shortens the path to good decisions.

01Key takeaways

• Before starting a project, check whether someone has already solved the same problem.
• Look first at bright spots inside your own product, since internal consistency helps users learn.
• Study competitors, partners, and adjacent industries for best practices worth adapting.
• Only deviate from an existing solution when you have a genuinely good reason to do so.
• Simplify the problem by questioning whether rare use cases need full support or can be handled another way.

02Key sections

A Design Problem with Too Many Cases

The author's team struggled to design a location field for job postings that had to handle single, multiple, telecommute-only, and mixed location scenarios. Frustration grew until she suggested first studying how other job boards solved it.

Borrowing Proven Solutions

Drawing on IDEO, Twyla Tharp, and the Heath brothers, the post argues that finding someone who already solved the problem is a standard, efficient design tactic. It distinguishes internal bright spots from external best practices.

Start Inside Your Own Product

Teams should first ask whether they have solved a similar problem before and replicate what worked. Consistency across a product makes it easier for users to learn and use it.

Look Beyond Your Walls

Competitors, partners, and companies in neighboring domains may have solved the same problem. Design patterns emerged as a formal way to share these best practices, and the approach applies beyond design.

Building the Habit

Teams should pause before projects to ask whether the problem is already solved and whether a different solution is truly justified. Revisiting inspiration when stuck helps shorten the path to good solutions.

03From the post

“This post is part of a series about making better product decisions. I was recently working with our interaction designer on the design of our job posting creation form. Like many job services, we ask for the location of the job, but the design of this section wasn't quite”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.