The Three Most Kick-Ass Startup Skills — Part I: Problem Solving
It used to be a pain in the backside to start up your own business a couple of decades ago, but now you can do it with a few casual clicks of your mouse. This is just one aspect that represents a massive change in the way we work and, as a result, the way we think about the way we work.
On top of that, the idea of spending a large chunk of your days on this earth in one job and at one company — waiting for your pension and a some sort of goodbye gift when you’ve called it a day — is pretty much a ‘No way, José ’ concept today. In a world where technology is fast becoming the boss of everything we do, people can create their own work and be their own bosses — and that’s exactly what’s happening.
From a professional perspective, in order to survive this increasingly more influential startup-driven world of work, you’ll need a new set of skills. The same way your parents once had to learn how to use a fax machine or a typewriter, you’ll need to navigate your way around new technologies and their repercussions.
99 Problems, But Solving Them Ain’t One…
For people looking for careers in tech startups, you can break this set of essential weapons into three main categories. In this series, we’ll explain what those categories are, starting with arguably the most important one: problem solving. Spend some time sharpening up these skills as if they’re your favourite pencils, and you’ll be ready to catch whatever the world of startup employment has to throw at you, no sweat.
How AirBnB, Facebook & BlaBlaCar found ‘The Problem’
Many tech startups exist today because somebody saw a problem and wanted to have a crack at solving it. Facebook saw that there was no credible, free and easy way to connect with a bunch of people at once — no matter their location — and share thoughts, updates and relevant content.
The three founders of AirBnb stumbled upon two problems: that people were paying for space that they weren’t using much, and that people wanted more options for places to stay when they traveled away from home. BlaBlaCar got on track when one of its founders wanted to get home to his family in the French countryside but had no car and no other way of getting there.
If you really open your eyes, you’ll see problems all around you. But the good thing is that where there are problems there are also opportunities to solve them. In the three cases we just mentioned, these problems were solved with technology, but that doesn’t mean they all need to be, as we’ll see shortly. The important things is knowing that being able to recognize a problem and come up with a solution is a key skill that can make you a startup star.
How to spot a problem in the first place
A ‘problem’ (at least in the context we’re talking about here) can be anything from simple flaws in design or out-of-date practices that don’t really fit with the way we live today, like using a Walkman to listen to music, or carrying a mobile phone so big it comes with its own briefcase and an army of people to set it up.
To spot a problem, you only need to think of something that bugs you regularly. From there, you can think about how you would improve the situation and bingo! Congratulations, you now have the platform from which to figure out a solution that could apply to hundreds, thousands, and even millions or billions of people…
Hugo’s Hammer
Let’s take Hugo Cornejo and what we’ll refer to as the ‘BREAK GLASS TO OBTAIN HAMMER’ conundrum as an example. This is the story of a classic ‘chicken and egg situation’, which are so often the most difficult type of problem to solve.
Hugo is an Interaction Designer by profession, which means his job is to shape (and reshape) digital things for other people to use easily. A few months ago, Hugo decided to pack his bags and move from his native Madrid to a larger metropolis called London.
When he got there, he found himself in all sorts of chicken-and-egg situations. For example, to open up a bank account, he needed to present a utility bill with his name on it. The problem there is that, in the UK, you need to have a bank account in order to set up an account with a utility provider, leaving poor old Hugo with a frustrating ‘Catch 22’.
The Chicken & the Egg
Being an interactive designer, the situation reminded him of another case of chicken-and-egg he’d seen back home in Spain: the hammer used to break glass in an emergency situation. You’ll often find these on trains in many countries across the world, for example, and it presents the same dilemma in every single one, regardless of language:
“BREAK GLASS TO OBTAIN HAMMER”
“ROMPER EL CRISTAL PARA ACCEDER AL MARTILLO”
The problem is that the hammer itself is usually tucked away inside a glass box. So how the heck do you break the glass box to retrieve the glass-breaking hammer? Chicken-and-egg, right?
Unable to help himself, Hugo decided that he was going to try and tackle this problem using his design knowledge, along with a healthy helping of common sense. He saw three main issues within this particular problem.
The first was with the copy — the written instructions — on the box; it was too confusing. ‘BREAK GLASS’? He guessed that somebody trying to escape a train amid danger would probably not be looking for a little glass box. He decided ‘EMERGENCY HAMMER’ would be a better, more clearer and logical call to action in such a scenario.
Too Much Graphic Imagery
Hugo’s second issue was with the graphic used to represent the hammer hidden inside the box. Next time you’re on a train, have a look for one of these hammers. The icon very rarely looks like what most of us would consider a typical hammer.
Hugo believed — quite rightly — that an icon for a product like this shouldn’t concentrate on being realistic; it should focus on being accessible, so that anybody who saw it would know instantly what’s going on. In short: the icon should look very close to what its user would draw if you asked them to create their own icon.
Elbow, Punch or Karate Kick?
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, he noticed that you couldn’t actually see inside the box because the so-called ‘glass’ (which is actually plastic) has a frosted effect. So the user has no idea if they will hit the hammer and end up in hospital when they break the box. Neither are they sure what the best way to do that would be: an elbow? a punch? a karate kick?
And the winner is Germany
Putting all of these thoughts together, he decided that the best solution is probably the one used by ‘Ze Germans’, where the hammer is always visible and free as a bird, and not encased in a glass box. Instead, it sits peacefully in a bracket above the window, with a set of clear printed instructions on how to use it printed on stickers next to it, waiting to kick the ass of any glass that should require it.
You can read the original story of Hugo’s hammer situation here:
Problem Solving in a Startup Setting
Now let’s think about Hugo’s story in the context of a tech startup. When you do so, all of those problems that Hugo noticed are essentially what we often call ‘user bugs’. A user bug, in tech-speak, is anything that bugs a user when using your product to try and achieve a goal. On an everyday level, it’s like trying to open a door where you can’t reach the handle, or driving with a coffee in your hand because your car has no damn cup holder.
Most objects we interact with in everyday life — and most practices that we instinctively maintain — have been designed by a human being for another human being. Some of them have been around since before many of us were born. What Hugo’s example shows is that a lot of these objects are still fundamentally flawed.
Because of this, there will continue to be opportunities for somebody to fix them, which potentially means more tech startups. As members of the tech startup community, we need to develop the kind of core skills (like Hugo) that allow us to solve problems.
How to Start Training Your Problem-Solving Skills
To sum it all up: the ability to weigh up the needs and problems of your community and to see those needs with fresh eyes, not just from our own perspective, is a fundamental superpower that all startups need. It doesn’t matter if that community happens to be your group of friends, your fellow passengers on a train, or the entire planet.
Why don’t you have a go yourself? Think of something you see, use, or do regularly that has been bugging the hell out of you and write down a few bullet points explaining how you would start fixing it. We’d love to hear some of your ideas, no matter how crazy, so drop them in the comments below, and let’s if you have what it takes to be the next WhatsApp, Instagram or Nest!
Check back soon; I’ll be dropping some more startup skills knowledge on you in Part II.
Words: Chuk Ikéh
Originally published at blog.tyba.com on December 4, 2014.
