Every two weeks I send out a big idea I’ve been chewing on in the hope that it makes you less of a shitty person.
A while back I found myself in the middle of doing something and thinking, Why the hell startups and budding entrepreneurs can’t clearly communicate what makes their offering unique?
Or even better, Why do they tend to come up with a brilliant solution to a wrong problem?
In walks The Phoenix Checklist.
Michael Michalko mentions it in Chapter 14 of his book ThinkerToys.
The Phoenix checklist is a set of damn fine questions put together by the sharp-minded folks in the CIA to encourage agents to look at a challenge from multiple angles to find the most effective fix.
The beauty of the checklist lies in the fact that you can ask these questions to analyze any problem you come across and have your “Eureka!” moment sooner rather than later.
You don’t have to go through all of them - you just need to answer enough to find a solution.
Use it as a base on which you build your own personal checklist of questions.
Every time you hear someone mention an interesting question, add it to your list.
Pretty soon, you’ll have a Phoenix Checklist of your own.
And bear in mind the words of Peter Drucker:
“The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.”
Hard disagree.
Without any further delay, here’s The Phoenix Checklist.
Some find it to be stupid.
Others, brilliant.
I’ll let you decide…
The Problem
Why is it necessary to solve the problem?
What benefits will you receive by solving the problem?
What is the unknown?
What is it you don’t yet understand?
What is the information you have?
What isn’t the problem?
Is the information sufficient, insufficient, redundant, or contradictory?
Should you draw a diagram or a figure of the problem?
Where are the boundaries of the problem?
Can you separate the various parts of the problem? What are the relationships between them? What are the constants?
Have you seen this problem before?
Have you seen this problem in a slightly different form? Do you know a related problem?
Try to think of a familiar problem having the same or a similar unknown.
Suppose you find a problem related to yours that has already been solved. Can you use it? Can you use its method?
Can you restate your problem? How many different ways can you restate it? More general? More specific? Can the rules be changed?
What are the best, worst, and most probable cases you can imagine?
The Plan
Can you solve the whole problem? Part of the problem?
What would you like the resolution to be?
How much of the unknown can you determine?
Can you derive something useful from the information you have?
Have you used all the information?
Have you taken into account all essential notions in the problem?
Can you separate the steps in the problem-solving process? Can you determine the correctness of each step?
What creative thinking techniques can you use to generate ideas? How many different techniques?
Can you see the result? How many different kinds of results can you see?
How many different ways have you tried to solve the problem?
What have others done?
Can you intuitively see the solution? Can you check the result?
What should be done? How should it be done?
Where should it be done?
When should it be done?
Who should do it?
What do you need to do at this time?
Who will be responsible for what?
Can you use this problem to solve some other problem?
What is the unique set of qualities that makes this problem what it is and none other?
What milestones can best mark your progress?
How will you know when you are successful?
The Phoenix Checklist is a great way to start the problem-solving process.
If you’re like me, always looking for an angle, a different way to come at things, it can help you make sure you’re chasing the answer to the right question - not answering the question that happens to be in front of you.
If you dig this piece, I’d love for you to share it with others who might face impossible problems.
P.S. Like what you’re reading here? Well, you have three choices really.
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3. When you are ready to level up, hire me.
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