DEFINING A PROBLEM:
the most important step for the success of your solution, and it must exist even before your idea.
Today I would like to talk about what I believe is very important for anyone’s life, whether personally or professionally: defining problems. As I’ve been in this world of entrepreneurship, innovation, and startups for a while, I’ve seen, heard and given my opinions on many ideas. However, I almost always find myself having to ask the same question, which causes some embarrassment (but shouldn’t), to these same people:
What problem do you solve? Why?
Well, today’s post aims to explain more about problems and how to define them. It seems trivial, but believe me, it is perhaps the most important activity you can do within your business, especially at the beginning of your journey.
I was recently invited to run an idea acceleration program with a National Entity that aims to help high school and undergraduate students from Educational Institutions in Brazil to enter the world of entrepreneurship. From day one, I try to play the role of that person who, even though I love to see eyes that shine in search of knowledge, will bring some not-so-good news. Especially because in our first contact, it is necessary to demystify some points about startups and innovative businesses. Mainly the common attachment to that “brilliant idea”.
In the first moments I need to explain that an idea is not what you need as an entrepreneur… trust me, you need a problem! Therefore, I try to show the importance of having a problem. Why? Because almost everything that involves developing an innovative business is uncertain… now, imagine putting yourself in the shoes of someone who wants to invest time and money in a business as such? This is perhaps one of the few doubts he/she can resolve in the first moments he evaluates the investment: the relationship between the entrepreneur and the problem he/she decided to solve.
You may be wondering: what would be the second thing this person can validate? As incredible as it may seem, another thing that he/she is able to validate, in addition to the entrepreneur’s relationship with the problem, is his/her own relationship with this problem. How so? Look, problems have existed for as long as the world has been around… They don’t change… What happens is that the importance we give and the way we deal with them varies over time. But if you do an exercise to imagine those solutions that you like the most and that you use most today (it could be any app, startup or tool), you will realize that if we go back just over 2000 years in time, when baby Jesus was born, this problem it already existed and, oddly enough, there were already people trying to solve it. Really? :/
As mentioned in the post about “STARTUP MINDSET”, a startup or innovative business needs to solve a problem in a different (and better) way than the way it is currently solved in order to guarantee its success. I could explain some concepts that explain this, such as “jobs to be done” or JTBD (Ulwick, 2005) (Christensen, 2016) and “activity theory” (Vygotsky, 1978). Unfortunately, I will only talk, and more briefly, about Anthony Ulwick’s “jobs to be done” concept, as it is a more commercial and tangible topic to our ears. The truth is that any existing solution seeks to solve some tasks (jobs) for some people, and such tasks have always existed… In a future post I will talk more in depth about “jobs to be done” and their different types.
Source: Grand Designs Inovação
Ulwick argues that “for an innovation to be successful, there needs to be agreement on what needs mean and the types of needs that customers have”. Furthermore, “the objective of innovation is to develop solutions for unmet customer needs”. I dare add that these unmet needs can be considered “gaps” in the way it is currently done. As shown in the figure above, a job can follow what some call “job stories”, that is, whenever a SITUATION occurs, a MOTIVATION arises, helping us to imagine an EXPECTED RESULT.
So how can we define a problem? Here is a step-by-step guide on how to become more intimate with the problem your business aims to solve, even if you already have a solution operating, making money, etc. This will be a good tip so you can think of ways to improve it even further.
A very well-known tool in the design world, also used in frameworks such as the Design Sprint, the “How Might we?” (HMW). The main novelty and added value is the fact that the HMW is a kind of brainstorming of questions. That’s right!! Instead of trying to look for solutions through collective ideas, we look for questions. And how does it work? All members must discuss or raise as many questions in the HMW format as possible and, after that, select the most important ones. Furthermore, among those selected, they try to choose:
I. The one that most closely resembles the “purpose” (or reason for existing) of the business they are creating.
II. The one that is perhaps the clearest and most palpable hypothesis of a future solution.
III. The one that perhaps indicates one of the main challenges (or barriers) to be overcome by your future business.
After choosing (modifying or not) these three questions, you have everything you need to define a problem well. A well-formulated problem must have meaning and be captivating. A great indication of a wicked problem is the existence of a contradiction, i.e., even though we have a well-defined purpose, as well as a hypothesis of how we could achieve it, we know that there is something that gets in our way.
Source: Grand Designs Inovação
If you’ve made it this far, I challenge you to formulate your business problem following the indication in the figure above. Remember, this is a suggestion to give meaning and motivation to those seeking to create an innovative solution. Another very important thing to mention is that “it does not need to be written in stone”, i.e., a problem, or your perception of it, can and should change over time for several reasons.
I hope I managed to get away from “the obvious” a little with the tips sent here and, of course, I will address this subject in more depth on another occasion.
REFERENCES
- Christensen, Clayton M., Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan. “Know Your Customers’ ‘Jobs to Be Done’.” Harvard Business Review 94, no. 9 (September 2016): 54–62.
- Ulwick A. Jobs to be done: theory to practice. — [s.l.] : Idea Bite Press, 2005. — 1 : Vol. 1.
- Vygotsky L. S., Cole M. and Souberman E. Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes [Journal]. — [s.l.] : Harvard University Press, 1978.
