The highest leverage work happens early

Most people spend too much time implementing solutions and not enough time defining problems and designing solutions.

From a systems thinking perspective, problems become more expensive the later they’re discovered. Effort invested earlier in the process often prevents far more work later.

In practice, this usually breaks down into four stages:

1. Define the problem
2. Design the solution
3. Implement the solution
4. Maintain the solution

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The hardest part is that defining problems and designing solutions rarely feels productive in the moment. But that’s often where the highest leverage actually exists.