The trucking project described in the accompanying article, “Design the Team Before You Design the Solution: Commercial Trucking Case Study,” succeeded when a team shifted its perspective on whose problem it was solving.

Here’s how to build the learnings captured by the case study into how you and your team approach your next complex problem.

1. Name what you think you already understand.

Before bringing in outside perspectives, write down your current working theory of the problem. Stating it explicitly does two things: it helps to bring your assumptions to the surface (write these down), and it gives you something concrete to share with the next person you talk to.

2. Go to where the problem actually lives, not where it’s discussed.

If your team’s understanding of a problem is built entirely from data, reports or stakeholder interviews conducted in formal settings, you’re likely missing the version of the problem that only exists in the field. Ask yourself who is closest to this problem physically, day to day. Then find them and speak to them in their environment.

3. Select perspectives surgically, not for the sake of variety.

Diversity of experience pays off when it’s targeted. Before adding someone to a working group, ask what gap in understanding (not what job title or background) you’re bringing them in to close. We paired a neural-net architect with a retired insurance CFO because one could see what was technically possible, while the other could see what an underwriter would trust. We needed both of them together.

4. Listen for the sentence that contradicts your model.

In our case, it was one comment from a fleet owner that interrupted our own narrative. It’s tempting to dismiss a comment like that as an outlier. Treat any input that doesn’t fit your current thesis as a data point worth exploring and testing.

5. Let the reframe change the solution, not just the pitch.

The easy failure mode is to hear a new perspective and then build the same solution with better packaging. The more valuable move is to let it inform what you’re building. We didn’t add a wellness feature to a telematics product; we rebuilt the whole concept around driver experience, with telematics as one part of it.