The best way to solve a problem is to:

1. Identify it,
2. thoroughly understand it, and then
3. to solve it better than anyone else.

All three are nebulous and frought with uncertainty. Let’s focus on #2: How can you truly understand a problem?

Experience the problem, for TRUE understanding

You gotta experience the hardship yourself. Doing so will unlock secret insights, which can drive creative solutions.

Don’t rely on others to explain the problem

Why can’t someone else experience the hardship and communicate it to you? They can.

But there are issues with this:

(1) they probably won’t even realise they have a problem in the first place. Consequently, they can never communicate it to you.

(2) And even if they do see a problem, their solutions might be questionable. e.g. “more training” or “more licensing”, or they may attribute problems to “human error” when in reality the problem could be scoped and solved differently.

(3) And even if they realise that there is a problem, most are not creative enough to see a solution that is x10 better, nor will they necessarily have the skill etc. to prosecute it, or to communicate it well enough for you to understand it.

Cut out the middle man.

If you need a further reason, consider the apocryphal tale of Henry Ford: he had an idea about creating a new invention - the motor car - and thought it wise to undertake some market research, prior to investing in his start-up.

“What do you want?”” asked Henry Ford to potential customers.

“We want faster horses,” was the reply

“Do you want a car?”

“No, I want a faster horse”

“The car is faster than a horse.”

“Will I be able to pet the car?”

“No, the car is a machine. You can maintain it if you wish.”

“Can the car jump over obstacles, or walk through streams?”

“No it only goes on roads.”

“No thanks. Just give me a faster horse. Thx.”

This illustrates the difficulties of relying on others to innovate for you. Your market research junior will report back to you: “they want faster horses”. It absolutely doesn’t work. Even if you have an innovative solution, if you try and explain it to someone else, in the abstract - they probably won’t understand it. They’d have to experience it first hand for them to say, “Aha - I want that!.”

The best way to solve a problem is to experience it, and truly understand all its nuances, and to derive an innovative solution.

Summary

Problems and solutions need to be understood, and drawn out - as if from a well - for you to devise a new solution that will make things happen. Many assumptions and hypotheses need to be tested and proved.

• Once you understand a problem, your solution must be absolutely compelling: x10 better than anything else, for you to maximise your chances of success. And that can only happen when you’re offering folks something that they cannot get anywhere else - you need a secret, you need a deep insight into a secret / hidden problem.

• If you don’t have a deep, secret insight, then you’re an also-ran in an open horse race.

• Moral: Dig into the weeds - draw out the secrets associated with a problem. And solve it well. Now you’re are competing in a one-horse race: it’s yours to lose.