The most consistent challenge of my career: what are the most important actions I can take right now to benefit my customer/team/user? The challenge of fixing potholes offers a useful illustration of how to answer the question. 

With thousands of miles of roads in a typical city, no city government can prioritize fixing potholes effectively. In a conference presentation I attended recently, Eric Clark from SpringML highlighted an intriguing aspect of this by asking the audience for a show of hands: how many people have encountered a pothole in the last week? Almost every hand went up. How many had reported a pothole – ever? Less than 1% of the hands went up. 

Locals have the knowledge of where the potholes are, but city officials who can solve the problem can't access the knowledge. 

So Eric’s team mounted a camera on a streetsweeper and built a computer algorithm to identify and categorize potholes to be repaired.

But for many situations, knowledge doesn't lend itself to collecting automated images and developing an algorithm to prioritize a fix. In managing and retaining a large team, or building a web application with the features users will care about, or finding the right prospect to buy a product, there is no automated algorithm. 

The default position is to create a solution and priority by making assumptions, but such a top down approach can be wildly off the mark. 

Instead, meet with people you serve on a regular basis in casual, 1:1 meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to access the local knowledge – find the potholes they haven't reported to you. If you are a data analyst, meet with the people who use your reports. If you are sales person, meet with a customer or someone you aren't actively selling to to get feedback. If you are an HR director, meet with 5 employees chosen at random. 

Leaders face a reality that "knowledge potholes" are everywhere, so how do we prioritize our energy and efforts to find them?

Without a way to access local knowledge, we:

• Implement solutions with a lukewarm reception that don't "scratch the itch of our customers"

• Choose engagement initiatives to build culture that don't really matter to employees

• Sell to the wrong prospects and close fewer deals

• Create reports for leadership that don't get used

This plays out in businesses large and small, as well as government and non-profits. 

 Methods such as "Management While Walking Around," Jobs to Be Done, and Customer Discovery all point to a better way. I heartily recommend diving deep into each of those methods. But you can start quickly, and efficiently.

Meet with people you serve on a regular basis in casual, 1:1 meetings.

The purpose of these meetings is to access the local knowledge – find the potholes they haven't reported to you. If you are a data analyst, meet with the people who use your reports. If you are sales person, meet with a customer or someone you aren't actively selling to to get feedback. If you are an HR director, meet with 5 employees chosen at random. 

And in your meeting with them, focus on asking open ended questions. Tiago Forte touts open ended questions as a path towards genius, and provides a compelling example from physicist Richard Feynman and his penchant for contemplating a list of 12 favorite problems. 

For an unknown reason, I am most naturally inclined to ask yes/no questions (e.g., "do you like working here?"). But the insights I get from that are pretty thin. It takes a bit of practice, but here are a few shortcuts:

• To what extent do you believe XYZ?

• If you could change anything about XYZ, what would it be?

• How valuable is XYZ? What is more important?

My effectiveness at making an impact on people around me depends on my ability to utilize their own experience, to fill a pothole that they actually care about. Tapping into the local knowledge of the people I am trying to help paves the way in making a difference for them.