Design is a deeply human capability, yet it is increasingly practisedthrough tools, templates, and now AI. These can generate polished,method-first outputs at scale, but the risk is growing, work thatlooks right, yet lacks depth, character, and humanity. If you haveever felt your process is “correct” but your outcomes areinterchangeable, you are not alone.In Before the Solution, you will build the habits and rituals that situnderneath the methods. Written for early-career designers andstudents, and useful to anyone in tool-heavy settings, it focuses onthe part of practice you can train without a brief in front of you.How you sit with a problem before reaching for a template, how you leta prototype change the question, how you decide what to ignore, andhow you stay in charge when AI is in the room.The distinctive move is simple. It invites you to look beyond thesolution itself. Across six chapters you take up the companions adesigner lives with for a whole career, the discipline, yourself,other people, AI, problems, and solutions. Each chapter blends shortnarratives, distilled research from design cognition, and actionableexercises, supported by visual material you can return to as part of aroutine. This is not a replacement for your method handbooks. It iswhat makes them work.