The XY problem obscures the real issues and may even introduce secondary problems that lead to miscommunication, resource mismanagement, and sub-par solutions. The solution for the support personnel is to ask probing questions as to why the information is needed in order to identify the root problem Y and redirect the end user away from an unproductive path of inquiry.[2][3]
The term XY problem was implicitly coined by Eric S. RaymondinHow To Ask Questions The Smart Way when he wrote "How can I use X to do Y?" in the "Questions Not To Ask" section:[4]
Q: How can I use X to do Y?
A: If what you want is to do Y, you should ask that question without pre-supposing the use of a method that may not be appropriate. Questions of this form often indicate a person who is not merely ignorant about X, but confused about what problem Y they are solving and too fixated on the details of their particular situation.
Often, end users end up in XY problems when posing a question that does not directly address the desired outcome that originally motivated the question. Examples from software engineering include:
Asking about how to grab the last three characters in a filename (X) instead of how to get the file extension (Y), which may not consist of three characters[2]
Asking about how to change Nmap output (X) rather than how to prevent untrusted remote machines from detecting the operating system (Y)[5]
Asking about how to get a string between two delimiters (X) rather than how to parse JSON (Y)[1]
