What's the
problem?
The one everybody is trying to solve? Or the real one?
A few I've worked on. Each starts with the question, not the logo.
Most companies don't have a solution problem. They have a problem problem. The brief describes a symptom, everyone agrees on it, and the work goes to the wrong place very efficiently.
Technology changes. The customer problem doesn't.
Start here
Selected problems
3 of 13We had more data than ever. We were still measuring the wrong things.
Clicks, page views, fans, dashboards, weekly reports. None of it answered why something happened, or what to do next.
Read the problemEveryone wanted the next technology. That wasn't the problem.
The request usually arrived as a tool: a new platform, a new channel, a new capability. Rarely as a need.
Read the problemWe had a loyalty programme. Customers had no reason to be loyal.
Points, rewards, emails and a growing database were being treated as a relationship with the customer. They weren't one.
Read the problemSix things the work kept proving
- 01More tools can create more noise, not a relationship.
- 02Start from the required end result and work backwards.
- 03A channel needs a job and a next step.
- 04The visible output rests on hidden strategy, targets, metrics, process and infrastructure.
- 05Optimise before reinventing.
- 06Materials cannot compensate for a missing process.
Explaining change while it is happening
What does an Apple announcement actually change for ordinary people?
Asked to explain, live, what Apple was changing — to an audience with no particular interest in how the industry works.
If it can't be said simply, out loud, once, it isn't understood yet.
What should companies do about a change that isn't finished yet?
Live commentary on what Facebook's business model meant for companies, at a point when the honest answer was still partly open.
Telling the settled apart from the speculative is the actual work.
So, who did all this?
Find outStart a conversation
Bring the situation, not the brief. The first useful thing we can do together is find out whether the problem is the one you've been given.
hello@problemslab.com