“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
– Albert Einstein
When creating a new product, service,or business, most entrepreneurs as well as most corporations do not really explore the problems they’re trying to solve. A study conducted by CBInsight regarding the reasons for unsuccessful startups concluded the absence of a market need to be the number 1 reason for failure.
Hence creating empathy with your customer, user, or partner to understand their habits, needs and challenges is the foundation for creating value propositions that support great solutions. Identifying a real problem helps you to avoid designing a technically perfect but useless product or service in the eyes of your customer.
But how to do you determine the real problem?
We know that not everyone likes to talk to strangers and that it may feel embarrassing to delve deeper in an interview in order to unveil hidden needs and wishes of a customer. To support you with the preparation of your next interview have a look at our Interview tool.
Use the Customer Exploration Map to summarize your insights and gain closer look at how to develop a great solution.
But also be aware of analysis paralysis and make sure sure to turn your new insights into actual prototypes.
Examples:
Aravind: In India more than twelve million people are blind – many of these individuals are impoverished and suffer from unnecessary blindness caused by cataracts. Aravind Hospital has developed a service model to offer a surgical procedure which this population would otherwise be unable to afford. >> Read more
PatientsLikeMe: Individuals with a life-changing disease seek information and answers for the best solution and treatments. PatiensLikeMe offers a platform where patients can connect with others and share their experiences. >> Read more