Tips for Solving Real Business Problems

Problems aren't roadblocks. They're invitations. An invitation to innovate. To rethink. To leap. The difference between stuck and unstoppable? It's not the challenge. It's you. Your lens. Your toolkit. Your willingness to dance with the difficulty. As a tech leader, your ability to solve complex issues can make or break your career. I've led teams across continents, industries, and crises. Here's what I've learned: 𝟭. 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 Peel back the layers. Ask "Why?" repeatedly. You're not fixing a leak; you're redesigning the plumbing. 𝟮. 𝗦𝗪𝗢𝗧 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 Map your battlefield. Know your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Sun Tzu would approve. 𝟯. 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 Visualize the chaos. Connect the dots. Your brain on paper, minus the mess. 𝟰. 𝗦𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 Prepare for multiple futures. Be the chess player who sees ten moves ahead. 𝟱. 𝗦𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝘁𝘀 Wear different perspectives. Be the critic, the optimist, the data analyst, the artist, the operator. Your mind is pliable; use it. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨: - 76% of IT leaders rank problem-solving as the top soft skill (Global Knowledge) - Strong problem-solvers are 3.5x more likely to hit strategic goals (Harvard Business Review) - 70% of problem-solving pros drive more innovation (PwC) These aren't just methods. They're mindsets. Tools to reshape your thinking. I've used these to navigate multi-million-dollar projects and multinational teams. They work. Period. But the real differentiator: consistency. Use these daily. Make them habits. Your problem-solving muscle grows with every rep. Start now. Pick one method. Apply it to a current challenge. Share your results. The best tech leaders aren't born. They're forged in the fires of solving complex problems. What will you solve today?

Making progress on controversial problems Have you been pulled into a problem where everyone has an opinion, no one agrees, and no one has an actual solution? Like “Should we pivot this big ongoing project that the CEO isn’t convinced about?” My early attempts to tackle these didn't go great. I’d end up presenting a cautious solution to my boss’s boss’s, while another exec vocally disagreed.  Fun, right? 🙂  I needed a process that helped me stay calm, make progress, and get back to focusing on customer impact. What worked:    1. Understand where we are in the problem-solving process.  Most problems are like a universe — they expand in size and complexity with every new piece of information, then contract as potential solutions get eliminated. That gives me a roadmap. If I’m still hearing new information, it’s too early to propose answers. If I’m hearing repetitive info, time to consider solutions. Just naming where I am helps me stay grounded. 2. Use documents to get specific and share context.  Writing down facts and assumptions surfaces obvious questions, like “Is the main goal user experience, or perception?”  It can feel remedial, but that’s how I know everyone agrees on the core info.  It also means we can separate gathering information from jumping into solutions, which saves hours in real-time meetings.  3. Over-communicate the process and status.  For big problems, everyone wants to know what's happening and how to help. A regular update solves that: “This week I’m talking with X, Y, and Z;  Monday I'll share a recommendation draft;  Wednesday I'll share with leaders A, B, and C;  please share feedback by Tuesday.”  If I get inbound questions, I can just respond with the existing written process. 4. Ask questions even if they're embarrassing.  For crucial info, like “actually, who is the most important audience for this?”, I find someone safe, ask directly, and write the answer in my list of facts.  Usually someone else is missing that context too.  5. Write an opinionated recommendation.  My core proposal includes: - Summary:  problem statement & recommendation - Information learned:  facts v. assumptions (both are important) - Goals and decision criteria  - Options & pros / cons for each - Why this recommendation - Next steps if the recommendation is agreed on, including mitigating risks - Discussion of recommendation & other options Real-time discussions are more effective because everyone has the same info. 6. Don’t hold out for a perfect solution.  If a problem is controversial, by definition there’s no clear solution.   That gives me permission to propose my imperfect solution.   This process, simple as it is, has helped me tackle even the hardest problems.  And it’s helped me figure out how to diagnose and manage disagreements rationally, so even when everyone disagrees, we can figure out what it takes to make progress.  (For regular updates + the doodle, check out amivora.substack.com!)

I have a great example of being curious about business problems and not falling in love with your first idea for a solution. Story time. At one point in Pipefy, we noticed a lower-than-ideal conversion rate after a first conversation with prospects. We could tackle this in a million ways: Should we change our pitch? Were our SDRs making mistakes? Should our training be different? Were we targeting the wrong companies? The list goes on. Everyone worked in our office back then. We decided to investigate and start small: people had complained before about the space being too loud and sounding like a call center at times. Maybe this was hurting sales more than we had imagined. We had a hypothesis. Now I’ll break down our process of investigating it: ➡️ Step 1: A/B testing. We had SDRs call customers from a more isolated space and noticed an improvement in conversion. Great, we identified a problem that had a real impact. Now, all kinds of solutions come to mind. Should we change our layout? Renovate the space? Move to a bigger office? ➡️ Step 2: Start with the most cost-effective option. For us, this meant first testing some acoustic isolating materials on desks and ceilings. That helped, but it wasn’t enough. Maybe we need to change our furniture or even isolate SDRs in individual cabins. ➡️ Step 3: Before you commit to the hard solution, go back to the problem and the basics. We went back to the drawing table, and a colleague suggested trying something simpler: what if we traded our current headsets for noise-canceling ones? 🧪 We ran another A/B test with different models, and, you guessed it, noise-canceling worked. The best pairs we tried were the most expensive ones, but they were way cheaper than an office remodel. And they became the standard equipment for the Pipefy team. Long story short: be curious about the problem, be curious about how to solve it, and always test.

Have you ever seen one department blamed for a system or strategy issue because their result is where it's showing up? In B2B tech, I see this constantly: → "We have a marketing problem" (but it's really a product differentiation issue) → "Sales isn't closing" (but we're spread across too many segments) → "Pipeline is down" (but the market assumptions in our plan are wrong) Marketing and sales are the tip of the spear to the market. Problems originating in other parts of the business sometimes get blamed on them when the source may be a COMPANY STRATEGY problem, rather than a departmental failure. Before you fire that CMO or CRO - consider if it really IS a pipeline issue... or if there's a systems or strategy issue. Some tips from today's article: 1) Name the systems issue - As you explore part of the business that’s struggling, look for the interconnected parts that might be contributing rather than treating issues in silos 2) Listen more deeply to customer feedback - Customers don't know your org chart. While listening can be a cacophony of opinions, painful truths are often publicly shared and reveal systemic issues that span multiple departments. Pay attention to complaints that seem to touch multiple areas of your business—these are often symptoms of deeper systems problems that require cross-functional solutions rather than departmental fixes. 3) Create space for constructive truth-telling - As a leadership team, you need to foster the trust and structure that allows systemic issues to be named and addressed, even when they implicate other functions or expose uncomfortable realities. 4) Be specific about the HOW, not just the numbers - Many companies use their financial plan and KPIs as their strategy. Their annual plans and quarterly goals describe the numbers more than HOW to get there and what trade-offs are necessary. Make sure your annual and quarterly plans include how you expect the market and competitors to evolve, how you define and allocate investments to different audiences, regions, and verticals, and how you plan to differentiate in the short and long term. 5) Make hard decisions, don’t kick the can down the road - Systems problems rarely resolve on their own. And because they are diffuse, generally not time-bound, and have no right answer, it’s hard to make quick progress on them. But choosing to act, even imperfectly, is better than pretending the issue doesn’t exist. 6) Keep asking: What are we missing? Periodically step back and ask what might be hiding in plain sight - is there an overlooked “connective tissue” that could unlock progress? As an executive team, it’s easy to get deep in execution and run out of time for strategy. But if there’s illness in a part — it’s really important to consider the health of the system.