[mrandish]

Over the years I fell into a role where I get called in to help solve business problems in different parts of a large tech company when the team working on it gets stuck. I always begin by gathering the key stakeholders and asking "What exactly are we trying to accomplish?"

After working enough of these through to resolution, I've noticed that more than half the time, the key to the root problem is found in the answer to that first question. That's how I learned to start with that question and then to carefully probe the exact terms and associated meanings in the various answers that emerge around the table. As I gently push toward agreement on a clear, concise problem statement different definitions, scopes, boundaries etc emerge. It's rarely a short conversation and oftentimes we never get past that first question without discovering something really key to unblocking the situation.

[CharlesW]

> I always begin by gathering the key stakeholders and asking "What exactly are we trying to accomplish?"

Also the first question listed in TFA.