Operating LogicA system for problem solving.

2.1
Revealing

"Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic." — Albus Dumbledore






You can’t force an insight into existence. But you can set the conditions for one to emerge. 

Revealing insights is about close observation, pattern recognition, and disciplined questioning. It’s about resisting the surface-level conclusions and digging into the forces underneath. 

There’s no perfect recipe, but there are reliable moves you can make to dramatically increase your odds.




I. Collapse & clusterAfter research, you’ll be sitting on a pile of observations—quotes, tensions, statistics, anecdotes, fragments. Your first job is to surface them all. Lay everything out where you can see it:

Notes from discussions
Patterns from desk research
Quotes from expeditions
Hunches you can’t shake

Once surfaced, start collapsing similar items together. Cluster related ideas. Group tensions that seem to orbit the same root cause. At this stage, you're not solving. You're sorting. You're beginning to sense the currents.



II. Look for hidden patternsAs you cluster your findings, tune your eye to the subtle shapes they form. 

Look for:

Outliers: Things that don’t fit the norm and why.
Harmonies: Shared assumptions that aren’t questioned.
Coincidences: Repeated phenomena that hint at deeper forces.
Memetic Behaviors: Recurring behaviors across groups or categories.
Emotional Undercurrents: Shared frustrations, hopes, fears.

Insight hide behind what feels normal. The patterns everyone else accepts without noticing are ripe for unlocking.



III. Ask why until you can’tOne of the simplest tools in revealing is asking why. Start with an observation. Then ask: Why is this happening? And why is that happening? And why is that happening?

Push yourself through layers of questioning. It’s rarely the first why that gets you somewhere interesting. It's usually the third, fourth, or fifth.

Observation: 
"Consumers aren’t adopting our new service."

Why? Because they don’t trust it yet.
Why? Because it feels complicated and risky.
Why? Because the onboarding process is confusing.
Why? Because it assumes too much prior knowledge.
Why? Because the team designing it was too close to the product to see the gaps.

Emerging Insight: 
Intimacy with a product often blinds companies to the real barriers their customers face.



IV. Respect the tensionNot every cluster or pattern will yield a clean insight. But when you find a place where two truths seem to pull against each other — pay attention. Tension is fertile ground for insight because it signals energy:

A desire unfulfilled.
A behavior in conflict with a belief.
A system struggling under outdated assumptions.

Where tension exists, movement is possible. And where movement is possible, strategy can live.



Insights mindsetUncovering and naming the forces that shape behavior, markets, and culture is hard work. You’re dissecting the present. Giving voice to what’s been felt but never clearly said.

This work will never be easy. And that difficulty is a sign you’re getting closer. Honor the challenge by meeting it with patience, waiting in the fire. Because when you read the present closely, the future begins to reveal itself.

In the next section, we’ll move from revealing insights to articulating them — making them shareable and memorable.
By Garrett HerzikPreviousNext