From developing a minimum viable product to growing a business, entrepreneurship comes with a lot of challenges. In this context, there are many tangible and practical benefits of applying critical thinking.
Understanding critical thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to analyse the way you think and present evidence for your ideas, rather than simply accepting your personal reasoning as sufficient proof. In short, critical thinking is the analysis of facts to form a judgment. One of the most common challenges when facing any problem solving is the desire to rush off and get to an answer as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this often leads to only solving a symptom, not the cause of the problem. This is the reason why turning the attention to the symptom leads to the discovery of many other symptoms while the problem persists. What is the best approach in this situation?
Analysing the problem
When people are asked to look into an issue, they often start solving it without really thinking through what is causing it. When applying the critical thinking process, first, consider causes. Start with why. Have a close look at the symptom that is problematic. Once you have a good understanding of why, do not fall into the trap of stopping there. Once you have that understanding, ask why again. Figure out the real reason behind what is happening. Gain a deep understanding of what is causing concern on your stakeholder's part. This is the best road to take in order to avoid solving symptoms, and instead, come up with a recommendation that is going to solve the real problem.
Example
For example, at the end of the process of developing a food delivery app, the product owner realizes that the app is not working properly. In an attempt to find a quick solution, he/she turns to the developers and asks them to use more resources to focus on the code. Soon, they realize that the code wasn’t in fact ready. Why? Because the specifications were not done in a timely manner. Why? The reason is that they did not agree on the features and functionalities of the app. Going deeper, the team comes to the conclusion that developers were not given clarity by the product owner around one aspect that was a major strategic decision.
Breaking big problems into small ones
This is not a new concept. Breaking big problems into small pieces has various applications. For instance, in Project Management people use Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). This involves identifying the major functional deliverables and subdividing those deliverables into smaller systems and sub-deliverables. These sub-deliverables are further decomposed until a single person can be assigned. You can find another application of this principle in computer science, where there is an algorithm that is quite popularly known as the divide and conquer algorithm. The concept behind this algorithm is breaking a large problem into smaller ones, and then further breaking the smaller into sub-smaller problems until these become simple enough to be solved directly.
One of the first steps in any good critical thinking process is based on the same principle. Take an overwhelming problem and break it down into smaller ones that one individual can actually solve. The time spent thinking through what the components of the problem are is going to pay dividends on the backend when you analyse the possible solutions because you are going to have a better sense for what recommendations and solutions to pursue.
Using critical thinking when generating a recommendation
Once you generate a recommendation, stop and think critically. What new problems can you create, if you implement this recommendation? What are the new symptoms that will be caused? Think that through before you implement your recommendation.
Example
In the 1970s, Schlitz (one of America’s most popular beer brands at the time) decided to compete with Budweiser. In order to do so, the head of Schlitz Brewery Company, Robert Uhlein Jr., made the decision to cut costs in the ingredients used in the beer production. He also wanted to speed up the brewing process. By replacing Barley malt with corn syrup and the foam stabilizer with a cheaper version, the beer did not taste the same. The brew time also went from 40 days to 15. The final result led to a good initial profit, but by 1981, they had to shut down their Milwaukee plant. A Milwaukee mayor compared it to the sinking of the Titanic.
This is a very good example to illustrate that sometimes a solution might solve a certain problem (the profit was indeed higher in the beginning) but cause more problems in the long run.
It comes as no surprise that critical thinking abilities are some of the most sought-after skills in almost every industry. Make sure you put aside any assumptions or judgments when analysing a problem your business is confronting with. Instead, try asking ‘why?’ until you get to the bottom of the problem.
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