If I had one hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about the solution. (Albert Einstein)

And that’s because coming up with a solution will only take 5 minutes once you fully understand the problem. Believe me, I run into it all the time.

Take usability reports, for example. For these, it’s almost always the case that I’ve actually spent a ton of time with each issue. I’ve listened to hours of tapes, I’ve sifted through tons of notes, I’ve rearranged quotes and behaviors in multiple buckets, I’ve struggled with ways to understand what exactly what was going on, I've struggled to get some persepective from a higher level … The reports do indeed write themselves.

And that’s also why I almost always include suggestions in my reports. I figure if I’ve spent that much time thinking about something, I’ve probably got some good ideas already on how it might be fixed. And seeing that I’ve been doing this for 30+ years, this is probably not the first time I’ve run across that issue either.

I do get pushback sometimes though. Indeed, designers tend to be a bit touchy when you “tell them what to do.” Now, I can definitely understand that. Personally, I hate it when clients come to me with a demand for one method over another without first talking about what they actually want feedback on. 

So, what I typically do is call it a “suggestion” and say that it just occurred naturally as I was writing up the report and that you can take it or leave it. I mean, it’s all supposed to be a collaborative effort anyway, right? Heck, I really don’t care if you claim the solution as your own. All I really want is that the issue is addressed somehow, or even that the team has thought about addressing the issue but have good reasons (business, standards, whatever) for not doing so. 

Interestingly, I also get similar feedback from the occasional user researcher. They typically say something about being above the fray, staying unbiased, focusing on the issues, etc. Personally, I think it’s something of a cop-out.

I mean, honestly … You’ve spent hours on this stuff. You’ve probably even seen it before on other tests. Heck, you might even have a design background yourself. Why not throw something out there – to at least get the conversation started and stake out a place at the table? 

Einstein also said:

• "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• "If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough."
• "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."