When you talk to customers, beware of their focus on a specific solution instead of on the problem they’re trying to solve. For example, as a statistician, Lauren has often been asked to perform statistical analyses using a specific computational technique. However, the particular techniques suggested are often the wrong ones. That’s because non-statisticians are usually unable to determine the best statistical plan on their own, and so instead they suggest a technique they know, regardless of whether it is appropriate (see Maslow’s hammer in Chapter 6). Telling a client or colleague that
