Problem solving is both an art and a science. An art in the sense that it involves skillful creative maneuver which can be exclusive to someone's perspective about life and society. A science in that we can adopt a methodical process in identifying and solving problems. I also believe a solution is not a solution until it brings tangible socioeconomic benefits to people. Suffice it to say not understanding and misunderstanding society results in poorly crafted and poorly implemented solutions. It's not a myth that after college many take years unlearning what they learnt and learning what they didn't in order to be useful in industry- we romanticize this experience by calling it graduate training.
Problem solvers carry many titles from doctors, technologists, entrepreneurs, and many forms from hospitals, vendors in the streets and everything in between. So if making money is as simple as identifying and solving a problem, why are 85% of businesses failing? The answer is there is more to it- it's simple but not easy. I have identified just three fatal mistakes we make in solving problems or fulfilling.
1. Solving the wrong problems.
As a kid learning at a village school, I preferred going to school barefooted or with sandals. My parents could afford proper shoes but many other kids could not. As a result it was easier for kids without shoes to run on our way to school. It also meant I missed out on playing football on our way back home. Trust me playing football in the road made the return journey exciting. On the other hand, it meant less or no business for shoe companies. But was it just because we had no money to buy shoes? No! Most traders brought cheaper shoes and we never bought them, the few bought were never worn. But was there no strong business case here for a company to invest in manufacturing cheaper shoes- look, over four thousand shoeless kids? We had become so accustomed to lack so much that we had develop ways to use it to our advantage. Solving problems requires special skills to identify the problem and the cause of the problem? Not only should we ask ourselves what is it people do not have, we should seek to understand why they do not have it? The problem we see is just the result of the real problem.
2. Innovation is not everything.
A modern day e-learning mobile app ($10000 worthy of programming) makes no penny while the ghetto extra-lessons teacher's pocket never runs dry, how ironic. The tech guy appears more sophisticated because they have developed something new. When it doesn't work as planned everyone always resorts to the usual alibi- "the market is just not ready for it yet." Well, the market is always ready for a solution to a real problem and actually pays for it. People buy and pay for valuable solutions not technology or innovation. We often think of solutions or technology out of this world and we give more emphasis to features of our products than true social benefits ordinary street people derive from our solutions. Part of the real problem is usually access to the existing solutions to that problem. Sometimes we don't need to invent anything but rather just give people access to the proven solution. Technology doesn't necessarily need to change people's traditions, behaviors or norms. Instead it takes the shape of the people's daily lives. Technology is a force amplifier not force creator.
3. New is not everything.
One day my mentor asked me who my competitors were and I hastened to say there is noone who is offering a similar solution. I was naïve to believe I was the first to solve that problem. To my surprise he told me that my biggest competitors are the non-doers. By that he meant the worst form of competition for any business is people just choosing not to adopt your solution. That simply means people can afford to do without your solution because it's not valuable enough to make them switch from traditional means. The best way to understand value creation in problem solving is to ask any millenial to spend a day without their phone. Millenials simply can't do without social networks. Real value is not just in creating something that people can do with but rather creating a solution people can't do without. Something that becomes part of their daily lives. Something can be new but that doesn't make it better. Novelty is not everything.
Solving problems has much to do with understanding the core of the problems- Asking why and not what. Then developing the right solution through value creation. Creating value is not enough, we need to master the science and art of transferring value. Part of the puzzle is solving the problem of access. It is imperative for us to consider any existing alternatives before solving any problem. People have been dealing with that problem somehow in the past. To sum it up I will say for every problem in the society there is the real problem(the cause), the problem we see then the challenges or limitations of existing solutions. If we solve the first and the last problem, we complete the puzzle.
Quite an insight, interesting.
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