Solution Gravity

Definition

A pervasive force to rush a solution's implementation, even if some relevant customer needs remain unknown

Purpose

A purposeful architect ensures that Solution Gravity does not prematurely end the discovery journey, leaving some customer needs undiscovered and unmet.

Key Point

Solution Gravity limits solution possibilities when the discovery journey captures a customer solution rather than the customer need. It leads to cutting corners in design and development as well as discovery.

Solution Gravity in Purposeful Architect

The Force that Leaves a Solution Unfinished (Key Story)

Excerpt: You need to defy Solution Gravity while discovering customer needs, and continue to defy it until you have enough customer needs to cover the solution scope. The next post introduces defiance of Solution Gravity.

Everyone in this story felt a strong force to deliver the solution, even though it did not cover the business needs within its scope. I call this force Solution Gravity.. Like physical gravity, it applies to everyone The executive sponsor wanted the solution as soon as possible, the user manager needed the solution's benefits and you were eager to please both of them. Solution Gravity pulls stakeholders and the development team towards building a solution. If the solution scope does not have all of the customer needs, the incomplete solution will disappoint the customer.

Defying Solution Gravity

Excerpt: Discovering customer needs is like searching for the gemstones around the mountain. Solution Gravity will pull at you and the other stakeholders anxious to get the solution. If you have not yet discovered all of the customer needs, you will end up with an incomplete solution and a disappointed customer. The previous article, The Force That Leaves a Solution Unfinished illustrates how Solution Gravity pulls stakeholders towards an incomplete solution.

Excerpt: Defy Solution Gravity that pulls you into solution design before discovering all of the customer needs that your solution would fulfill.

Defying Solution Gravity begins with preparation. You want to get as much information about the customer needs before your first discovery meeting with the stakeholders. Read any document the customer has pertaining to their needs or the context of those needs. For example, they may have documentation or reports from the system your solution will replace. The discovery meeting should focus on what only the stakeholders know about the customer needs. This makes the best use of their time, energy and attention. Customer stakeholders may have "pain points' that they want your solution to relieve. For example, their staff spends a lot time copying information from one system to another. Your solution will automatically transfer the data between the systems. Customer stakeholders will lead with their pain points because they are anxious to get relief. Pain points provide a good start to defying Solution Gravity by thrusting you into a customer need. Make sure you capture pain points and acknowledge that back to the stakeholders. Once stakeholders recognize that you have captured their pain points, Solution Gravity becomes stronger. The stakeholders want relief from their pain as soon as possible. You must continue to defy Solution Gravity to capture all other customer needs in the scope. if the pain points hurt enough, the stakeholders may decide to limit the scope to only relieving the pain points. That risks ending up with an incomplete design, needing additional discovery and design rework. Ideally, the scope will include pain point relief and needs for improvements, making the solution more complete.