The XY Problem: How to spot it, stop it, and ask better questions

A client emails you on a Friday afternoon. "Quick one. How do I change the font size on just one word in the footer?" Simple enough. You point them to the editor, explain inline styling, and move on. Half an hour later, another email: "Great, and how do I make it bold and red?" Then another: "Can I add a link to just that word?" So you get on a call. Turns out they're trying to add a legal disclaimer to the footer. They didn't ask about that because they'd already decided the best approach was to manually style individual words inside the existing footer text. They were asking for help with step four of a plan you never saw steps one through three of. This is the XY problem. It's one of the most common communication patterns in technical work, and once you notice it, you'll see it everywhere. The short version Someone has a problem (X). They decide on a solution and start working through it. They get stuck on a specific part of that solution (Y). They ask for help with Y. You answer Y,