Falling in Love with the Problem is such a critical step in not only Design Thinking but also in just solving REAL problems for REAL customers. The concept is basically that in order to fully be able to assess all the best solutions possible, we need to throw ourselves ‘into’ the problem in a way and at a level that is MUCH more than just a superficial approach.
It’s owning the problem as if it was truly ours! When we do this we can attack the problem from an inside position and not merely as a ‘gun for hire’.
Dwell on the Problem
If this is such a magical approach to solving problems, why is it so difficult for us to do? The truth of the matter is that we are wired to be ‘problem solving machines’ as humans.
That’s what we do. That’s who we are. To ask us to dwell on the problem and divert that time away from finding a potential solution is antithetical to everything we know and stand for. It somehow even feels un-American!
Avoid creating ‘Better Bad Solutions’
BUT…it sets us up for making sure we not only solve the problem but that we solve the RIGHT problem. In addition, it allows us to also avoid making an existing bad solution just a BETTER bad solution. An equally devastating outcome.
I like to think Falling in Love with the Problem is a kind of magic, or at least a Jedi mind trick, but it’s not. What it is is a method that forces us to stay ‘inside the problem’ for as long as we can without jumping to conclusions as to what potential solutions might present themselves.
If we can keep our team focused on working with the end user to exhaust all avenues of what the core problem and its root causes are…and if we can consider the problem from all angles as seen by the end user…we’ll be assured that we’ve got the right problem to solve and that we have all the best possible solutions at hand to test and see which one is the best.
Do NOT Fall in Love with your Solution
As antithetical and un-American as it sounds, we need to Fall in Love with the Problem, NOT fall in love with our solutions! And that’s REALLY hard to do.
Remember when I said we are hard-wired as ‘problem solving’ machines? Well, we also have these things called Egos and we actually get paid by people to solve problems, not to dwell on them.
Funny enough, herein lies the problem. Because we and our bosses get promoted to come up with solutions, we short change the problem discovery process; you know, that thing we LOVE to call ‘brainstorming’ in the corporate world. We all know what that means.
Everyone gets together and the loudest person who’s the most prolific debater tends to pummel us all into submission and where we take the most practical solution.
Develop a TRUE Customer Discovery Process
Sadly even pretty good companies do it that way. What’s even sadder, is that those pretty good companies could be GREAT if they had a true problem discovery process that allowed their employees to stay involved researching all the nuances and core causes of what was distracting, difficult and a nuisance to their customers.
Everyone likes to talk about Innovation…but SO few people actually want to practice it. Maybe it’s that so few people and companies actually know what Innovation truly is?
Funny enough, like most people I suspect, I thought that Innovation was this overly complicated and cerebral process that took a special talent to learn and be good at. I could not have been more wrong. In fact, Innovation is more of a process.
Actually, in some cases even if a company were to do it badly it could even be formulaic and they’d still be better off than if they were not practicing Innovation at all.
Innovation is a Human Process
However, we want to make Innovation a ‘human process’, which in fact is what it is when it’s done right. In order to do this, we need to start right at the very beginning where true Innovation starts. Empathy. To be empathetic is starting at the beginning of the Innovation process. Interestingly enough the magic ingredient of Innovation is understanding other humans and what they need.
Starting out with an empathetic mindset will allow us to create a problem discovery, or customer discovery, process whereby we will be engrossed in and engaged with the customer at a level where we not only “feel their pain” we KNOW what their pain truly is.
Should we get to that point, our mind will be open to ‘hear’ what their true problems are and in some cases, not ONLY hear what the customer is saying but to intuitively be able to ‘sense’ what they mean.
Once we are able to have understood the problem at a level where we can ‘sense’ what the customer is saying, not only have we performed some Jedi Knight magic, we are ready…
Ready to Fall in Love with the Problem!
