I've seen teams say, "We should run a test," as though the test itself is the strategy. It isn't. A test is just a way of learning something. The more important work happens before it.
What are we trying to understand?
What do we believe is happening?
What behaviour are we trying to change?
What would we expect to see if we're right?
That's where curiosity matters.
Not in a vague inspirational way. In a practical way.
A curious team doesn't just look at the numbers and ask what changed. It asks why people might be behaving that way. It looks for the gap between what the business assumes and what customers are actually doing.
Experience is useful. Pattern recognition is useful. But experience can also make you lazy if it stops you asking questions.
The best people I've worked with don't just know more. They ask better questions earlier.
Where my thinking is today
Curiosity is a competitive advantage because it slows you down just enough to avoid solving the wrong problem.
And in growth, product and leadership, solving the wrong problem quickly is still losing.