I caught a sketch show the other day. In it, an ambulance was driving recklessly through the city center, constantly hitting pedestrians and other drivers but enthusiastically helping them once they'd been struck.
The skit ended there, but I can imagine a board meeting at the end of the quarter. "Wow, the number of patients we've treated this month has skyrocketed. Great job, team!"
We can't judge our success by how many fires we've put out. How many did we cause? And how many could we have prevented in the first place?
Easy enough to apply this to business strategy. A harder pill to swallow for UX.
I can write the world's clearest and most relevant error message, but if there was a way to prevent the error in the first place, I've failed. I can write a beautiful help article, but if that's not the right home for the info, I've failed.
Maybe the solution is to just take a step back. Be proactive. Think about the big picture. But all of those cliches don't have much practicality behind them. I'd like to start thinking about how I can prevent more fires with content, rather than put them out.
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