Why you gotta do what you gotta do

Have you ever heard the term "Necessary but not sufficient"? It seems that scientists have long before learnt to accept that certain requisites are necessary but not sufficient if an outcome is desired. Back in 9th and 10th class I had, with amazement, wondered how deep an understanding this would require. Imagine that! To accept that you need to do a certain activity X if you want an outcome but it isnt sufficient.

Fast forward to present. It seems that product managers need to learn this hard fact again. The problem with us is that we attribute the "solution" to the problem to the last effort that resulted in the solution. But we conveniently forget that the 'n' tries before that might have contained in them, disguised like pink flowers in a red bouquet, necessary but not sufficient conditions.

So the next time you hit the same wall, you simply apply the magical "solution" and bang .. it falls flat on its face. "Way to go ... product manager ... now give us proper business rules", I hear my tech lead go. . "Darn ... not again", I think to myself. But the secret is out boys and girls. The secret is the necessary but not sufficient conditions that this product manager forgot (or lazily ignored) to complete.

So the next time you get over a problem, just traceback to see what are the necessary conditions you crossed. You can stick it up to the tech dude if he tries to pull a fast one on you. 

Cheers,

KP.

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