Identifying True Needs

Julie Zhuo, vice president of product design at Facebook, says the first question to ask when trying to provide a solution is, “What people problem are we trying to solve?” This means defining the challenge in everyday terms, not tech lingo, and remaining agnostic to the solution’s form, Zhuo explains. A problem should also be stated in a way that “gets at the why,” and when possible, acknowledges human needs beyond functionality, according to Zhuo.