How to avoid wasting time and money on not-needed solutions and focus on the real needs of your company.

Have you ever heard of the phrase "a solution looking for a problem"? It means that someone has created a product or a service and tries to sell it to you, without a clear need for it. It might be a cool idea, but it does not solve any real pain points or challenges that your company faces or will face in the near future. On the other hand, a problem that needs to be solved is something that customers are actively looking for a solution to. It is a gap in the market that has not been filled yet or a better way of doing something that customers or employees already do. Why is this distinction important? Because it can make a huge difference in the success or failure of your project or business.

How to avoid a solution looking for a problem?

So how can you avoid falling into the trap of “a solution looking for a problem”? Here are some tips to help you:

• Start with the problem, not the solution. Before you build anything, you need to identify and understand the problem/challenge that you are trying to solve. Who are the stakeholders? What are their pain points, needs and goals? How do they currently solve their problem? What are the gaps and opportunities in the existing solution?
• Validate your problem and solution. Once you have a clear problem statement, you need to validate that it is a real and meaningful problem for your stakeholders. You can do this by conducting customer interviews, surveys, experiments and testing your assumptions. You also need to validate that your solution is the best way to solve the problem. You can also do this by creating a prototype, getting feedback, measuring results and iterating your solution.
• Focus on the value proposition. A value proposition is the benefit that your solution provides. It is the reason why they would choose your solution over the alternatives. You need to communicate your value proposition clearly and effectively to your stakeholders. You need to show them how your solution solves their problem, meets their needs and helps them achieve their goals or brings value to their business.

How to find a problem that needs to be solved?

So how can you find a problem that needs to be solved? Here are some ways to help you:

• Look for known problems or challenges. One of the best sources of inspiration is the experience and knowledge of your stakeholders (like staff). What are the problems that they face in their day-2-day operations or challenges they have? What are issues that frustrate them, annoy them or make them unhappy? What are processes that they wish were easier, faster, cheaper or better?
• Look for other people's problems or challenges. Another great source of inspiration is other people's experience. What are problems or challenges that your partners, suppliers or customers face? What are processes that they complain about, struggle with or need help with? What are some products or services that they are willing to pay for, but are not satisfied with the current options?
• Look for trends and opportunities. A third source of inspiration is the external environment. What are trends and opportunities that are happening in the world? What are the changes in technology, society, culture, economy or industry that create new problems, challenges or needs for people? What are gaps or niches that are not being served by the existing solutions?

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have compared “a solution looking for a problem” versus “a problem or challenges that needs to be solved”. We have also shared some tips on how to avoid creating a solution looking for a problem and how to find a problem or challenge that needs to be solved. We hope that this post has helped you to think more critically and creatively about your ideas, problems and/or challenges.

If you need more help with finding and solving problems for your company, we are here to help. We are a consultancy service company that specializes in helping entrepreneurs and businesses to create and validate innovative solutions that solve real problems. We can help you with:

• Identifying and understanding your stakeholders and their problems and challenges
• Validating your problem and solution assumptions
• Creating and testing your prototype
• Communicating and delivering your value proposition
• Scaling and growing your business
• Creating and testing your MVP, MFP and/or MDP

If you are interested in working with us, please contact us at team@dxgladiators.be. We would love to hear from you and help you to achieve your goals.

Author: Steven Ackx

"Steven is a master of acronyms. He can turn any idea into a MVP, MFP, or MDP in no time. He's also a great coach and mentor for aspiring entrepreneurs and innovating businesses. If you want to learn from him, just send him an email and he'll be happy to help. Just don't ask him what his name stands for. He'll tell you it's a secret."