I “fixed” a website issue three times before realizing none of those fixes mattered

Recently I worked on a site that showed multiple warnings — performance, SEO, technical flags. Each fix made sense on its own, and yet the problem kept “coming back.”

What finally stood out wasn’t the fix itself, but the realization that I never defined what outcome would actually mean the issue was solved.

There was no clear finish line. Just changes, waiting, and guessing.

I’m curious how other founders handle this in practice:

Before acting, do you define an explicit “done” condition?

What tells you with confidence that a problem is actually resolved?

Have you ever realized after the fact that you were fixing the wrong thing?

Not pitching anything — genuinely trying to learn how people avoid chasing noise and repeating fixes.