Are we solving the right problems?

As a founder of Beyond, I’ve spent countless hours talking to product managers and leaders from different industries and companies, trying to understand the core challenges they face in their day-to-day work. One thing that comes up over and over again is this seemingly simple, yet deeply complex question:

In many conversations I’ve had, one common theme stood out when it came to problem solving: Prioritization. Too often, decisions about what to build are driven by the objectives of top leadership, and while that’s not inherently bad, it can lead to situations where the deeper reasoning behind a problem isn’t explored. We spend time talking about opportunities at a high level, but we don’t always dig deeper into their potential impact or how to properly implement them.

Why solving the right problem is so challenging

One thing I hear frequently is that product managers often feel like they’re caught in the middle. On the one hand, they have customer feedback and data, and on the other, there’s pressure from stakeholders or leadership with personal objectives that may not always align with the long-term vision. It’s like trying to navigate through fog: you have a general direction but not always enough visibility to absolutely feel confident.

And then there’s the challenge of prioritizing opportunities. How many times have you sat down with your team to really weigh two or three opportunities, asking yourselves which one will create the biggest impact and how to break it down into meaningful, actionable steps? Not often enough, if we’re being honest. The problem is that the information we need to make those decisions isn’t always easy to get, or in some cases, it’s missing altogether.

This is why solving the right problem becomes so difficult. You might have ten different voices telling you what the product needs, but without clear alignment and a proper understanding of how solving one problem affects your key outcomes, you risk spending resources on problems that don’t really move the needle.

How to start solving the right problems

This is exactly why I’m working on Beyond—to help product teams make confident decisions about the right problems to focus on and the right opportunities to pursue, in the right order.

Here’s what I’ve learned along the (hard) way:

Start with a clear outcome

One of the most impactful things you can do is start by defining the outcome you’re aiming for. What is the business trying to achieve? Is it growth? Retention? Profitability? When everyone on the team is clear about what success looks like, it becomes easier to evaluate which problems matter most.

Map opportunities to outcomes

Once the outcome is clear to everyone, it’s time to map out the opportunities that can help get you there. For each opportunity, ask yourself: how will solving this problem help us hit our outcome? This helps filter out the distractions and focus on what truly matters.

Weigh opportunities side-by-side

This is the part I see missing most often in teams. We talk about opportunities individually, but rarely do we sit down and compare them directly. What if you took two or three opportunities and really dug into their impact, their effort, and their feasibility? The idea is to find the sweet spot where effort and impact align. Sometimes it’s not about solving the biggest problem but finding the problem that can be solved the fastest while still creating significant value. Often the most unsexy opportunities are the real nuggets.

Validate and slice

Even when you think you’ve found the right problem to tackle, it’s crucial to run experiments or tests to validate your assumptions. Sometimes, the key isn’t solving the problem in one go but slicing it into smaller, testable parts so you can adjust and learn as you go. By the way, this doesn't always need to be shipping code.

Personal reflection

For me, the reason this question, “Are we solving the right problems?”, is so fundamental is that it forces us to step back and ask: are we being intentional with our time and resources? Every hour a team spends on the wrong problem is not just wasted time—it’s an expensive misallocation of effort, people, and money. The cost of a full team chasing the wrong thing can be immense, not only in terms of lost productivity but also in missed opportunities to drive meaningful impact.

With so many distractions and pressures, it’s easy to get caught up in the wrong things. But when you have a clear outcome and a structured way to prioritize opportunities, you can make decisions that feel purposeful.

Shreyas Doshi often talks about the importance of clarity in product thinking, and I think that’s what this question drives toward. Are we clear about what problem we’re solving and why? It’s not about choosing one problem and sticking with it—it’s about constantly reassessing and refining your path based on real insights and data.

By aligning your opportunities with clear outcomes, weighing options side-by-side, and validating your approach, you can feel way more confident that your team is focused on what truly makes a difference.

At Beyond, we’re building tools to help product teams do exactly that. By visualizing how opportunities connect to outcomes and offering a framework to prioritize effectively, we aim to give PMs the confidence to know that they’re working on the right problem, at the right time, in the right order.

Because in the end, it’s not about how much you build—it’s about building the right things.