12 Problem-Solving Techniques

 

I've seen founders bleed revenue for the same reason.

They were solving the wrong problem.

A retention issue needs a different fix than a bottleneck.
A trust problem looks nothing like a scaling constraint.

Treating them the same is exactly why people stay stuck.

The best operators I know reach for the right tool for the right problem.

Here are 12 I swear by:

1️⃣ Root Cause Analysis:
Most problems have a problem underneath them.

Ask why 5 times before you decide anything.
Solve the problem underneath the problem.

2️⃣ First Principles Thinking:
Stop copying what worked for someone else.

Strip back every assumption,
and rebuild from what you know to be true.

3️⃣ Reverse Thinking:
Work from the end, not the beginning.

Start with the outcome you most want to avoid.
Work backwards from there.

4️⃣ The Pre-Mortem:
Most launches fail for reasons you could have caught early.

Before any launch, assume it fails.
Map the most likely reasons why and fix them first.

5️⃣ Scenario Planning:
Single-source strategies are fragile.

Build 3 versions of what happens if your top traffic source disappears.
If you have no answer, that's the problem.

6️⃣ The Impact vs. Effort Matrix:
Not every problem deserves equal energy.

High-impact, low-effort moves first.
Plot your to-do list on a grid and cut or delegate the bottom half.

7️⃣ The Trust Audit:
Most bad partnerships were avoidable; you just didn't ask the right questions upfront.

Before signing anything, verify 3 things:
Does this person have a real audience, do their followers trust them, and does their brand align with yours?

8️⃣ The Loyalty Check
Retention is built between the deals.

When did you last reach out to a top partner with no agenda?
If you can't remember, you already have a retention problem.

9️⃣ The Stability Test
A fragile program looks like growth until it doesn't.

Find out what happens to your revenue
if your top 3 partners stop promoting tomorrow.

🔟 The Bottleneck Finder
You can't scale past your weakest link.

Most scaling problems are people and process problems.
Find the one constraint slowing everything else down and fix it.

1️⃣1️⃣ The Right Room Filter
Your time is the one thing you can't get back.

Before any commitment, ask whether it gets you closer to your top 3 goals.
If not, you know what to do.

1️⃣2️⃣ The Relationship ROI Review
The best opportunities rarely come from where you expect.

Every quarter, look at where your best opportunities and revenue came from.
Double down there.

The founders who scale consistently are the ones who know exactly which lever to pull when something breaks.

Build that instinct, and the problems stop feeling so heavy.

Credit to Amber Spears, make sure to follow!

https://tinyurl.com/3hvjbfkp