Note to self: Critical Thinking

Few notes that I gathered about critical thinking and would like to practice and remind myself

Distinguish causes vs consequences

Analyse in detail the cause of your decision and its consequence.

Break Big Problems in Smaller Problems

Define Problem Statements

• Outline Goals
• Map Boundaries
• Define Success
• Acknowledge Constraints
• Articulate Assumptions
• Identify Stakeholders
• Establish Timeline

Probe and ask questions

To understand the root cause of a problem or a request you need to ask the questions. See what is the main reason of the problem or request. Understanding the cause will help you prepare for a better solution.

Main questions to ask:

• What is really driving the request?
• Why do they care about this?

Focussing questions:

• What’s the real question? Specify the objectives and timing.
• Who are the stakeholders? Who are involved in the decision?
• How will we measure success?
• What is the scope?
• What are the constraints

Examine the Past

• Have we addressed this problem in the Past?
• If yes what is the difference between now vs then?
• Challenges faced during the last time?
• What are the assumptions limiting us?
• Who were the people involved last time?

Look through

• Different point of views
• Different context (eg from finance, tech etc)
• Different realities, what if we removed some of the constraints would that help us achieve better results?

Challenging the business operation

• If started over, what would you change?

Conclusion

1. Identify a problem
2. Break it into smaller problems
3. Create a problem statement
4. Look for new solutions
5. Focus on the meaningful
6. Analyse and think critically