Every Request Is A Proposed Solution

A leader says: “We need a dashboard.” A stakeholder asks for another approval step. A customer requests a new feature. An executive wants artificial intelligence added to the application.

Those requests usually arrive with confidence. They sound specific, actionable, and urgent. So teams do what they’ve been trained to do. They start figuring out how to build them.

But here’s the question that often goes unasked: What problem is this request actually trying to solve?

One of the biggest shifts I see in organizations is about how they think about requests.

Many teams treat every request as a requirement. Product-Led teams treat every request as a proposed solution. That single shift changes almost every conversation that follows.

At CAIP, requests arrived from every direction: policy changes, leadership priorities, operational pain points, ideas from staff, and feedback from applicants.

Every request came from someone trying to improve the program. None of that was the problem. The challenge was assuming the first proposed solution was automatically the right one. Sometimes it was. Sometimes it wasn’t.

Imagine someone says: “We need a dashboard.” That sounds like a requirement. But it may actually be an attempt to solve a completely different problem.

Maybe leaders don’t have timely information. Maybe the existing reports are too difficult to interpret. Maybe decisions are delayed because data isn’t trusted. Maybe people simply need one metric instead of twenty. The requested dashboard is one possible solution. The problem still needs to be understood.

This is where curiosity becomes one of the most valuable leadership skills .

Instead of asking: “How long will it take to build?” Ask: “What problem would this solve?”

Instead of asking: “Who can work this into the backlog?” Ask: “How do we know this is the best way to improve the outcome?”

Those questions don’t slow progress—they improve it .

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I’ve watched teams spend months delivering exactly what was requested. The work was high quality. The requirements were met. Everyone agreed the project was successful.

And then… The original problem was still there because everyone became focused on implementing the proposed solution instead of validating whether it addressed the underlying need.

That’s why discovery matters. Discovery reduces the risk of building the wrong thing.

The goal isn’t to challenge every request. The goal is to understand the problem well enough to determine whether the proposed solution is the best one—or whether there’s an even better path.

Sometimes the original request survives that conversation unchanged. Sometimes it becomes something entirely different. Both outcomes are valuable.

This doesn’t require saying “no” to stakeholders. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. It’s saying: “Let’s make sure we solve the problem you’re trying to solve.” That’s a very different conversation than simply accepting or rejecting an idea. It creates partnership instead of order taking.

One of the biggest opportunities in government today isn’t delivering requests faster. It’s becoming better at discovering the real problems behind those requests. Because every request begins with an assumption. The question is whether we’re willing to test it before we build it.

What’s the last request your team received that turned out to be solving the wrong problem?

Reply or comment—I read every one.

CAIP is a program we follow throughout my book,