Touch Reality Yourself

Trust but Verify

This recent conversation I had with a new team member made me think of a broader point. They had heard about something happening within the business from another person.

I said this (paraphrased):

I would Trust but Verify before you use that insight in your work. We’re trying to build an anti-fragile organization that’s resilient to any one person (i.e. this person) or even an entire group of people being wrong or incomplete. Either in facts (i.e. this anecdote is not representative), or in their interpretation of the facts. You can check in the data whether this statement is true (and in so doing get much more specific insights) and you can and should talk to both customers and former customers / non-customers to find out the context of why before you “allow it into your mental model” fully.

I trust what our customers tell us, that’s the source of truth. Everything else (including everyone internally) is just a proxy.

The goal wasn’t to challenge the specific insight. Instead, we want to make sure the person “touched reality”, both in this instance but also as a force of habit in the future rather than letting a proxy (i.e. someone said so) become the reality unchallenged. We expect everyone here to challenge the reality handed to us from proxies. Customer conversations and data are the reality. Leave no unexamined assumptions.

Don’t take proxies as reality - not because you don’t trust, but because your curiosity is stronger.

Originally authored by Bo Lu, edited by Wyatt Amaral