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Recently I was talking with a friend and he said he didn’t really get my point in the value added posts in regards to the necessity of added value been problem focus. To summarize: it is my contention that all value is customer determined and the additional benefit the customer perceives is when a product / service / solution resolves his or her problems, then and only then is value created.

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So does that mean you should focus on the solution or the problem?

The problem, always the problem! It is the core of your solution and it is where you must always start. Unfortunately a lot of today’s companies focus on THEIR solutions and not on their customers problems.

Can you create a solution without a problem?

You can only look for a solution or focus on a solution when you well and truly understand the problem. People brainstorm solutions which I think is great but that is only after you have brainstormed the problem! How can you resolve a problem you don’t really understand? You should first clearly identify the problem (s), sub problem(s). The further you can drill down and define the better.

Once and only once you have correctly defined and understood the problem(s) can you possibly see if the solution is valid or not, i.e. does it resolve all the defined problems? Some of them? So when you brainstorm solutions the best one will be the one that responds to the most problems or the most important problems.

Before I go any further, remember; if you want to create value for customers you have to get to know THEIR problems which means you have to get to know THEM.

Get into your problem zone, that’s where the solutions are!

Once you get into a problem focused mind set it is amazing how your outlook changes. You automatically have your antenna finely tuned for solutions. In our day to day lives we focus on our problems and then solutions come to us naturally. For example: when you want to buy a new car. This means you have a problem: Your old car is constantly breaking down or you need a new cool “look” whatever, the point here is it all starts with the problem. So once you have got that clear what happens? All of a sudden you think there car advertisements everywhere, the TV, radio, Internet, it seems that there has never been so many. There are the same as always, however you are now looking for them.

This happens constantly in our lives; you have money problems; you become conscious of special offers, discounts, unnecessary waste etc.

So those are two simple examples of how by focusing and understanding problems in your life you can find solutions which help you live better. What would have happened if you started off with “I want to improve my life” you would have your head in the clouds for a while, I am sure you would come up with something but not as efficiently.

A great example of the problem of being SOLUTION focused

I love the anecdote of the Americans and Russians in their race to be the first on the moon. Both of the world powers encountered the issue of gravity and how they could not use ink pens, so they could not write. The Americans invested millions of dollars in private consultancy firms that drew up complex solutions with special anti-gravity pens using special patented technology and so on and so forth, the Russian used a pencil!

Problems are opportunities

Having said all that it is interesting, however, that in a professional context we are more focused on the solution: “how to make things better / improvements” and we try to avoid all association with the problems, due to the “negative” connotations. I have lost track of projects, however well intentioned, I have seen down through the years that have been focused on improvements and start off with……..brainstorming new solutions / approaches etc.

In essence, problems are opportunities. However, if you try to avoid and hide from the problems you are also blinding yourself from the opportunity and as such the right solution will also be hidden from you.

What do you think? How often do you sit down and center on your problems, personally, professionally? Do you use certain tools like SWOT for those sessions? Or do you usually center on solutions?