What do they really want?

There’s a story I once heard about a man who went to buy a hammer from the hardware store. But what does that man really want? It turns out, he wants to hang a picture. But is that what he really wants. Well, it turns out he wants his wife to stop asking him to hang the picture. But is that what he really wants? It turns out, the man wants a better relationship with his wife.

I tried to find the attribution for this story today, and I came up empty. Regardless, it’s an instructive story.

I was recently asked to analyze a system redesign for a very specific goal. I can’t give the details, but it feels very much like the story of the man in the hardware store. I don’t think the real goal is the stated one. In fact, I think if I address the real goal, all of the stakeholders will be disappointed. The real trick here (and, if we’re honest, the real trick of many Data Science projects) is to figure out what the client really wants.

Though, I have a feeling it’s not just a relationship with his wife in my particular example.