A Three-Step Framework For Solving Problems 👌

Lenny Rachitsky recounts a failed Airbnb 'social travel' launch, arguing that the core mistake was misunderstanding the real problem (travelers want high-quality non-touristy things to do, not to meet other travelers). He presents a three-step framework: crystallize the problem with a structured one-pager, align the team and stakeholders on that statement, and keep returning to the problem throughout execution to resist scope creep. The piece argues that a misunderstood problem is the most certain cause of project failure, making this discipline a core leadership skill.

01Key takeaways

• Nothing causes a project to fail more reliably than misunderstanding the problem being solved.
• Write the problem as one short, focused sentence that names a unmet need and avoids assuming a solution.
• Support the problem statement with three to five strong pieces of quantitative and qualitative evidence rather than many weak ones.
• Define a concrete, ambitious but believable success metric so you can tell whether the problem was solved.
• Get the whole team and stakeholders aligned on the problem statement before design or engineering begins.
• Reopen the problem statement in design reviews and progress updates to prevent scope creep and drift.

02Key sections

The failed social travel launch

A beautifully designed Airbnb feature for travelers to meet up failed to get adoption, and was later replaced by a better solution after the team had misframed the problem.

Step 1: Crystallize the problem

Answer structured questions about the project and write a short, focused, solution-agnostic problem statement backed by a few strong pieces of evidence and a measurable success criterion.

Step 2: Align with the team and stakeholders

Circulate the problem draft, integrate feedback, resolve disagreements in person, and confirm stakeholders agree before design and engineering begin, since everyone may hold a different picture of the problem.

Step 3: Keep coming back to the problem

Teams drift from the original problem during execution; repeatedly reviewing the problem statement and success metrics in design reviews and updates prevents scope creep.

Closing thoughts and recommended reading

Problem solving is a constant part of product and life, so refining the skill pays off, and the author recommends several books on focus, strategy, and metrics.

03From the post

“[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s!zHZ!,fauto,qauto:good,flprogressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fec85cabc-5222-4a71-9e48-159f1981c07e1600x800.png) It’s 2012 and our team has just joined Airbnb. We’re tasked with building out a “social travel” experience for Airbnb travelers. The thinking is that travelers on Airbnb are siloed across the city, and if we make it easier for guests to meet up and do things together, Airbnb trips would be significantly more meaningful. We work long and hard to design an amazing experience for travelers to discover fun local things to do with other travelers. Fast forward to 6 months later when we launch the V1 in San Francisco. The product is beautiful and the experiences smooth. Adoption however…not so much 📉. A small percentage of travelers give it a shot, and it generally goes OK, however it’s far from the reaction we were looking for. We iterate a bit, make some incremental improvements, but a few months later we end it and move on. [](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s!XzE0!,fauto,qauto:good,flprogressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F999571b9-9839-4cd5-9c65-892caa844a3e1280x853.png) An early design of the product we launched, giving Airbnb travelers an easy way to find fun things to do with other travelers — designs courtesy of Shaun Modi I personally…”

04Frameworks mentioned

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