A fatal mistake I hate making and you might be doing it too

If you're working with clients right now, tell me if you recognize this.

You come across a bug and decide to patch it. That feels logical. But it's a mistake, because you didn't solve the real problem.

Before I explain, let me share what happened yesterday.

I came across 137+ orders with delivery issues. So I did the most logical thing: sent it over to the CS team and asked what to do. We agreed on a solution for future cases. But here's where I felt dumb.

The CMO asked me why it was happening. I had no clue. But that one question flipped my thinking, because now I had to focus on the root cause rather than the symptom.

And I bet you're doing the same thing when bugs come up. You see an error, you patch the error. But you never asked why it happened in the first place.

That's the real question. Because once you ask it, you stop patching symptoms and start fixing actual problems. And most of the time, the root cause is far easier to fix. In my case, I was about to build 3-4 automations to work around the symptom. One address validator fixed it completely.

The lesson: when you hit a bug or an error, ask yourself why it happened and how you can stop it from happening again. You'll notice a stark difference in how you think and operate.

And one more thing I realized after asking myself that question: being around the right people is a serious shortcut. That one question from the CMO pushed me to a higher level.

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