# Don't stop at the first answer
The craft · practice · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/02-06-dont-stop-at-the-first-answer.html

## The starting point

> "I sent the receipt link, and they were able to download it."

The answer did the job. A similar request comes back a few days later.

## The move

> "What makes that link hard to find?"

## Why it works

Settling a request and understanding what caused it are two different pieces of work. The first helps one person now. The second stops a hundred others from hitting the same difficulty.

Three receipt requests can come from a button that is hard to see, a message that never arrives, or three different situations. Look at what people did just before they asked. That is where the cause shows.

The same move holds for a job restarted after an error, a file sent back for a missing document, an instruction that has to be explained again. Every repeated fix is an inquiry waiting to happen.

In an emergency, restore first. For a repetition that costs, give yourself an hour of inquiry.

## Try this

On a request that keeps coming back, write two sentences: what helped this time, and what might explain the difficulty.

Examine one case with the person concerned. Look for a case that contradicts your explanation too.

After a fix, watch the next occurrences. If the request comes back, go back to the cause instead of repeating the fix.

## To discuss

Which request keeps coming back here without anyone looking for its cause?