Problem Map: identifying problems worth solving 🤌

Finding a problem worth solving is the hardest part for every startup, corporate or government innovation project. As one entrepreneur I worked with once said:

‘The process of discovery, going from problem to solution to product, is so multidimensional that it’s easy to get lost.’

Do these questions seem familiar?

What should we focus on first?

Which problem is worth solving?

How can we understand where we should start to build a relationship with our customers?

Where should we start?

After using Problem-Solution fit canvas for more than six years, I found a way to identify problems worth solving. If you are curious, take a look at Problem Map.

Here are the main takeaways:

1.

✨ It’s never just one problem; it’s a constellation of them.

Pains, struggles, experience gaps, unfulfilled jobs-to-be-done are all part of the problem constellation. It’s a network of interrelated issues and tasks, where if you start tackling one, it creates a ripple effect, enabling you to do more over time. Startups make a mistake when trying to address the whole problem scope instead of solving just one problem. Doing one thing really well means being helpful. If it’s valuable to your customers, then your solution is positioned to solve more from the problem scope, step by step.

2.

💥 Problems are difficulties with existing solutions, consequences of poorly designed ones or symptoms of serious underlying issues.

Problems occur when people experience struggle to do a particular job to get to the desired outcome (usually with an underlying need).

If you work with innovators and entrepreneurs, you might notice that they tend to generate ideas and solutions instead of thinking about problems they are trying to solve. But there is a workaround. It’s a lot easier to think about tasks and jobs-to-be-done that lead us to the difficulties surrounding them.

Problems occur as consequences and symptoms of poorly performing current solutions when customers expectations aren’t matched.

For example,

• a person thought it would be easy to do, but it requires effort and time to learn;
• a person remembers that it was easier before, but it isn’t anymore
• they expected the outcome to be X, but it’s Y and so on.

With time and scaled adoption, solutions generate systems around them. As they become accessible to most of the population, a part of the population won’t be satisfied with these solutions anymore. The rule behind it is straightforward — a thing can’t be looking great & suitable for everyone, there will always be a few individuals who are left unsatisfied and want more, different and better. Where there are few — there will be more later. That’s how early adopters drive innovation; they act as a filtering mechanism to new ways of getting the job done.

When solutions are not evolving, specialising and diversifying to address various segments, they create annoyances for niche segments, a ripple effect. The more unsatisfied is the audience — the bigger the wave formed from the ripples. That’s how large companies are disrupted.

Although the general opinion is that most problems are solved, it’s on the contrary, existing solutions that we use daily generate new issues all the time. So it’s a never-ending cycle.

3.

👀 Where goes customer’s effort & invested time (behaviour) - lies the opportunity.

When people care about something, they spend time on it. Pains and jobs in which customer invests time (which ultimately implies effort or money) are easier to tackle. Your audience is already into it. In other words, awareness is there. Focussing on frequent behaviour where people already spend time is the way to go for startups. Elimination of extra effort is value creation from day one.

Moreover, it’s the way to build the trust of your audience, solving problems step by step, in a gradual approach. Fixing one experience gap leads to changes in the situation and enables you to help your customers with the next step. It naturally gives you a strategy and a way to grow.

An effective strategy focuses on frequent behaviour first (frequently invested time), which means providing value from day one: whether it’s a solution or just information. Such an approach helps build a relationship with your target audience & helps to make the next steps towards solving the whole problem scope.

4.

🌋 The real pain is where your customers see a worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is highly subjective, making customer interviews a must.

Worst case scenario is a highly subjective view on the consequences of not reaching the desired outcome. Emotional response, related to the consequences of not doing a job well is a strong sign. It has a problem in it, which it is usually the hardest to address and create a solution to it.

I.e. The job is to ensure enough savings to have a safe and pleasant retirement. The struggles with it include budgeting, expense tracking & money allocation (frequently invested time), investments. The worst-case scenario is despair and disappointment due to money loss and decreased standard of living.

The real problem to solve is a decrease in the living standard in senior years. Your goal would be to help people retain and improve their living standards as much as possible by ensuring secure and simple expense tracking & money allocation (frequently invested time).

Does it sound visionary? Exactly. Turn around the worst-case scenario and use it in your solution communication. If you are in corporate innovation, this is where your attention should go.

That’s why it is an effective strategy to focus on frequently invested behaviour first and incorporate the job with a worst-case scenario into your company vision & mission. In the end, your goal should be to address the job-to-be-done that can severely backfire if not handled properly.

5.

⛔️ The first bottleneck on a journey to the desired outcome stops people from making further progress.

When it’s a disruptive innovation or adoption case (i.e. government innovation), the focus should be on the first bottlenecks on the journey to the desired outcome, which stops people from making further progress. Then, imagine how many people you can help by lowering the threshold (overcoming the bottleneck) to make the right decision, action or choice? That’s the reason why blogging, community creation, comparison sites, etc., are great starting points in entrepreneurship.
Removing the first bottlenecks on the journey is the pre-condition of solving the whole problem scope. If the first steps are so hard, then why would people persevere? It’s an excellent path for so-called wicked problems.

Another insight for the wicked problems is that the users you address don’t feel the worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenario lands on a different segment, such as the government, but not the target group. And that’s what makes such challenges so complicated. Usually, the target group does not see them as problems worth solving. So they don’t spend time on it. People only care about what they know and what is close to home. Then, connect the problem to what is already close & familiar to them. This way, they will emotionally relate to the negative consequences that the situation creates. An excellent way to approach wicked problems is to tackle these problems gradually. First, address a small part of it, the first bottleneck. It should be something where people already invest time. Then you have a foot in the door, and from there, you can solve more with time.

🪜 Problems are like stairs. They require a gradual approach.

Check out Problem Map on Amaltama.com 🧘‍♀️

If you have questions feel free to email me.

PS. Curious to learn more about customer-centric problem solving? Take a look at Problem-Solution fit book full of useful tips & examples from real work cases.