Hello There!

Welcome to March's edition of Plumtree Perspectives, and whether you're new here or returning, thank you for being part of the Plumtree community!

Each month we share new ideas, practical tools, and simple frameworks focused on how R&D teams can collaborate more effectively, thrive in complexity, and deliver faster for patients.

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Identifying the right problem to solve before designing the solution

In complex R&D work, teams are often under pressure to move quickly. Decisions are needed. Work must progress. Timelines matter.

But speed can create a trap.

Teams begin solving what is visible on the surface instead of the deeper need underneath.

When that happens, energy goes into improving symptoms instead of addressing the real constraint.

What we're noticing

Many teams jump quickly into solution mode.

A process isn't working.

A system feels clunky.

A department responds too slowly.

The instinct is to fix the visible issue.

Add a new tool.

Redesign a step in the process.

Create another meeting or review.

But often the real problem sits underneath the symptom.

We frequently see teams solving operational friction when the deeper challenge is alignment, decision authority, or shared understanding of what the work actually requires.

Without stepping back to understand the broader system, teams can work very hard on the wrong problem.

The insight

When teams focus on symptoms instead of root causes, the problem rarely disappears.

It simply returns in a different form.

A process gets redesigned.

A tool gets introduced.

A dashboard gets created.

But the underlying need remains unresolved.

This is why root cause thinking matters.

A well-framed challenge question helps teams align around what truly needs to change before energy goes into designing solutions. It prevents teams from optimizing the surface instead of addressing the real constraint.

The Plumtree Perspective

One of the most powerful things a team can do is slow down long enough to ask the right question.

We often work with teams to step back from the symptoms and frame a clear business challenge together.

A clinical development organization we worked with believed protocol amendments were slowing trial execution.

Instead of immediately redesigning the protocol amendment process, they stepped back to examine the deeper need.

One key question emerged.

How might we eliminate internal delays across our end-to-end protocol and trial initiation process?

That shift changed everything.

They brought together the right expertise. People doing the work alongside leaders responsible for the system.

Instead of optimizing individual processes, the team focused on the real drivers of delay.

Where are decisions getting stuck?

Where are handoffs slowing the work?

Where can leaders and teams solve problems together in real time?

Within a short period of time, they tested several new approaches to reduce internal delays. Two became embedded into the organization's ways of working.

The result was faster study execution, better decisions, and more empowered teams.

Not because the process changed.

Because the team solved the right problem with the right expertise in the room.

What you can try

One simple practice can help teams move from symptoms to root causes.

Try a short challenge question session with your team.

Start by listing current frustrations in the work.

What keeps slowing us down?

Where do we experience tension?

What keeps repeating?

Then ask a deeper question.

What are people trying to accomplish but cannot do consistently today?

That is the unmet need.

From there, draft a challenge question starting with:

How might we...

What if we...

The goal is not to define the solution. The goal is to clearly frame the need the team must solve together.

Once the challenge is clear, solution ideas become far more creative and impactful.

Below is the link to a short framework on creating business challenge questions if you'd like to try it with your team.

Business Challenge Question Guide

Plumtree Book Corner

What we’re reading right now:

Think Again by Adam Grant

Adam Grant explores a skill many teams overlook. The ability to rethink.

Most of us are trained to defend our ideas and prove we are right. In complex work, that mindset can lock teams into early assumptions.

Grant suggests a different approach. Treat your thinking like a hypothesis. Test it. Challenge it. Update it as new information appears.

That also requires the ability to unlearn.

In a world where new information emerges constantly, the willingness to rethink and let go of outdated assumptions is essential.

The most adaptive teams are not the ones with the best answers. They are the ones most willing to rethink the question.

Want to learn more? Click the image for the Amazon link.

Until next time!

If your R&D team is navigating complexity and you want support getting aligned and moving faster, we’re happy to start with a conversation.

Plumtree is here to help teams and organizations work at the speed of science.

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