Design Thinking: What If the Problem Is the Handle?

Imagine watching someone you love struggle to peel a potato. Not because they don't know how. Because it hurts to hold the tool. In the late 1980s, a man named Sam Farber watched his wife, Betsey, face exactly that. She had arthritis. And an ordinary kitchen peeler had become a small, daily struggle. Most people would have shrugged: "That's just the way peelers are." Sam asked a different question. Hold on to that. I'll tell you what it was at the end.

I'm Dr. Greg Watson. I've founded fourteen companies. And here's what building taught me: the first version of anything you make isn't an answer. It's a question.

Most new founders treat it like an answer. They fall in love with their first good idea and start polishing it. A better logo. More features. A slicker demo. Why? Because uncertainty is uncomfortable, and polishing feels like progress. But polishing the wrong answer just gives you a shinier wrong answer. This chapter is about design thinking: how to find the right answer before you build.

Three moves. Reframe. Widen. Watch.

Move one: Reframe. Before you design anything, check the question. Picture people stuck on one side of a river. The obvious answer is a bridge. Years of work. Millions of dollars. But what if there's already a ferry... and people just can't find the schedule? Then the problem isn't the river. It's the information. So ask: "Is this the real problem, or just the first way I described it?" And when people struggle, don't ask what's wrong with them. Ask what's wrong with the design around them.

Move two: Widen. Your first good idea is the most dangerous one, because it makes you stop looking. So before you choose, come up with several truly different ways to solve the same problem. Not ten versions of one idea. Different paths. Then compare them with three questions. Do people want it? Can we actually build it? Can we keep it going? Go wide first. Then go narrow.

Move three: Watch. Build the smallest thing that answers your biggest question. A sketch. A paper version. A role-play. That's a prototype: a question you can hold in your hand. Then hand it to someone and give them a real task. And here's the hard part: don't help. When they get stuck, every instinct will tell you to jump in and explain. Don't. The moment you rescue them, you erase the evidence. Their confusion is your data.

And be honest about what you're showing. A good-looking mockup is not a finished business. Don't let a pretty demo make promises you can't keep.

So, back to Sam Farber. The question he asked wasn't, "How do I make a better peeler?" It was closer to this: "What if the problem isn't Betsey's hands... what if it's the handle?" He worked with a design firm, Smart Design. They explored bigger, softer, non-slip handles. And in 1990, those tools launched as OXO Good Grips.

Here's the part I love. Those handles weren't designed only for people with arthritis. They were designed to be easy for almost everyone. Design for the person who struggles most, and you often make it better for all of us.

So here's my challenge. The next time you watch someone struggle with something... a form, a tool, a website... and you catch yourself thinking, "They're doing it wrong"... stop. Ask the Farber question: "What if the problem is the handle?" That question is where great design begins. I'm Greg Watson. Welcome to Chapter 4. Let's go fix the handle.