What's The Problem?

It's one of the most important questions you'll ever ask yourself while running your business.

"What's the problem?" Sounds like what a parent says to a child in distress. Turns out, though, that this might be one of the most important questions you ever ask. That's because little happens in business unless there's a problem to be solved. In fact, with all the emphasis on innovation these days, I've been keeping an eye out for an innovation to arrive that didn't directly result from an effort to solve a problem. So far, I haven't found one.

Here are some interesting examples of innovations. Can you name the problem each solves?

* Self-waxing skis
* Halal baby food
* Foldable cutting board
* LED faucet light
* Non-drip ice cream

Let's see how you're doing.

What's the problem self-waxing skis solve? Well, it's not that it costs money or is a pain in the neck to wax your skis, although those are problems for the skier. The problem that led to this innovation is the fact that as soon as you start down the slopes, the wax on your skis begins wearing off. So self-waxing skis ensure maximum glide during your entire run, and all day on the slopes.

Halal baby food is baby food specifically designed to meet Muslim dietary rules. Why? Well, it's not just because it tastes better or enables children to be trained in the dietary rules from a young age. Rather, it makes certified meat-based baby foods simply available to Muslim mothers who normally don't provide them to their infants. With Halal baby food, these mothers can ward off iron and protein deficiencies as they migrate their children from milk to solids from a very young age.

You're probably thinking the problem solved by the foldable cutting board is space, whether to store it or just fit it in the dishwasher. But the actual problem it's designed to solve is getting the food from the board to the bowl. By folding up the sides, the board essentially becomes a chute allowing you to simply tilt and pour, without spilling.

The LED faucet light isn't there to help you see what you're doing. The light changes color from blue to red depending on whether the water is cold or hot. Problems that are solved: You don't leave water running longer than necessary while you wait for it to heat up; you know whether it is hot or cold before you use it or test it with your finger, which can otherwise get scalded.

As for non-drip ice cream, I'll admit this one is obvious. I think it solves the problem of sticky fingers and filthy shirts and pants. The ice cream is refreshing and meets your need for a sweet, creamy, cold treat -- but it can create a mess, or create a new problem while solving another problem, as most "solutions" do.

The real point, though, is a bit more serious. Real innovation comes from identifying and studying problems -- and looking for solutions. While we all know this, we don't always do so well at identifying all the problems and all the solutions a particular innovation addresses. Nor do organizations always identify the ultimate problems, or "jobs to be done," when they set about to innovate.

In the world of innovation prowess, you have to begin with the end in sight, and that end has to be an "ideal" solution from the perspective of achieving the job to be done. What human need, or problem, are you solving, and have you solved it with the least amount of cost and harm? Or have you solved one problem in a less-than-ideal way that only creates another problem?

Maybe the non-drip ice cream simply doesn't taste as good as the dripping kind. One problem solved begets another, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is better to see and anticipate the chain of problems from the outset, and to innovate a solution that addresses them all.

So the shift in thinking is away from simply seeking and developing cool, new stuff. That approach is too risky and shallow. Better to look for the problems and to focus your development efforts around them. That way you know you are meeting and exceeding your customers' expectations, even before they have them.

Rarely does an innovation come in response to simply coming up with an idea for its own sake. In fact, many a good idea has been passed by, because no one recognized that there was a problem to be solved.

Take the 3M Post-it Note for instance. Typically held up as a great example of innovation, the Post-it Note actually resulted from a failed R&D effort when 3M scientist Spencer Silver was trying to make an extra strong adhesive and ended up creating one that was extra weak. The formula that enabled 3M to put the sticky in sticky notes actually sat on the shelves for years, until another 3m scientist, Arthur Fry, was having trouble keeping his bookmark in place while singing in the church choir and remembered the non-sticky adhesive created by his colleague. Only then, when someone identified a "low-stick" problem, did the innovation known as the Post-it Note come of age and find its way into he hands of so many millions of consumers.

While some books on innovation talk about the development of the sticky-but-not-sticky Post-it Note glue, I happen to think that was a non-event. It was the identification of a problem to be solved that led to this now-famous innovation.

Recognizing problems is hard. Crisply defining them is really hard. Finding solutions -- believe it or not -- is often the easy part. So with all the innovation excitement that I'm seeing focused on coming up with new, innovative solutions, I'd like you to be careful; perhaps, your innovation energy should focus less on finding solutions and more on finding problems.