Three Rules of Troubleshooting
November 22, 2022Recently, during a call with a particularly sharp tech support person, I mentioned Renee’s Rules™
The support person (who asked to remain anonymous) offered these Three Rules of Troubleshooting, which I thought were great! Here they are:
RULE #1 – Too much information is –almost- enough.
–Context is important; people often mindlessly share mundane details to a problem that can end up solving their issues.
RULE #2 – If something isn’t working properly, prove it.
–Understand limitation. Is it actually supposed to do what you think it does? If you sit and expect a goldfish to climb a tree, you’re going to be sorely disappointed when that doesn’t happen, and it’s not the goldfish’s fault.
RULE #3 – If you get an error message – BELIEVE IT.
–Sure, false positives are a thing, but don’t get so “I know what I’m doing!” that you miss the basics. Review the error, review what you’re doing.