A couple of weeks ago the Lab Twitter account posted a link to an article I’d written in which I suggested that all good ideas have to be rooted in a problem. Unless an idea solves a problem for someone, I argued, it’s of limited use.
In response, an innovation consultant commented that my piece was ‘balderdash’, and that many of the biggest companies in the world have launched products and services that nobody ever asked for.
They didn’t respond to my offer for a debate on this - my point being that whether anybody asks for something or not it surely must have solved a problem for them, or fulfilled an unmet need. Otherwise why would they adopt it?
Perhaps the issue here is that people prefer to talk in the language of ideas rather than problems, as it appears less bureaucratic.
I’ve worked in idea focused cultures and I’d argue that although they give the impression of being more ‘creative’, there’s actually very little of substance behind it. It’s often just innovation theatre.
Coined by Steve Blank the term innovation theatre is where ideas - arguably the easiest bit of the innovation process - are valued more than the discipline of turning those ideas into profitable business models. This requires a level of leadership commitment that is often harder to get.
A ideas focused culture is exacerbated by the following conditions:
Leadership putting pressure on finding quick fixes and the realisation of short term goals — rather than exploring long term impact
Discussing problems, or considering that organisation itself may be part of the problem, is seen as taboo or a sign of weakness, or even as a waste of time
Management falling in love with a solution too easily even if it’s not solving the problem at hand
“If i had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask. For once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes “- Next to a picture of Albert Einstein
I don’t know whether Einstein ever used these exact words but whether he said it or not, Einstein believed the quality of the solution you generate is in direct proportion to your ability to identify the problem you hope to solve. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” - as he also , allegedly, said.
Organisations might have more success if we all followed a simple five step approach to problems:
1 — Establish the need for a solution
Starting with a high level question of “What problem are we trying to solve here?” and being very clear about it is a good starting point. How big is the problem? Is it costing you money? And what is the likely cost of a solution? If the cost of the solution exceeds the cost of the problem - best leave it alone.
2 — Match the problem to organisational strategy
Even if you’ve established the need for a solution — it may not be one your organisation is best placed to provide. The best organisations don’t try and do everything. They focus on trying to solve fewer problems, in better ways.
3 — Explore the context to the problem
Often your problem will be one that the organisation has tried to resolve before. We rarely stop to reflect on why our previous efforts failed and what we should avoid this time.
If the problem is industry wide, it’s crucial to understand why the market has failed to address it, and whether it is even feasible that it’s solved by a single player.
4 — Writing the problem statement
Now you’re ready to write something down. A problem statement should describe the undesirable gap between the current-state and future-state. It should avoid any mention of a solution and be no longer than a tweet.
5 — Prototype a solution
As Simon Penny wrote here , prototyping can also be used to test an idea; not by creating a smaller working version of a service or product, but by testing the many different component parts or even thinking abstractedly in order to start to uncover what it might feel like to use the service or product. This can be tested — with people — to help you further refine the problem. Thinking of prototyping as part of the problem definition helps you avoid falling in love with your first idea.
When you truly fall in love with problems, not solutions, you not only stand a better chance of solving them. You also start unlocking a path to a better, less complicated organisation.
“Be more in love with the problem than the solution” - Bromford Lab quote on an orange background with a Bromford Lab logo.