Sometimes when you look for good new ideas your find yourself asking people what they need, what problems they are facing in using this or that tool.
A good marketer would make a quantitative analysis and from that point at a solution a or b.
Plato once wrote:
“If you know what you are looking for, then there is really no problem, but if you do not know what you are looking for, then how would you be able to identify it?”
So, asking a costumer what he/she needs today would be identifying a solution on today’s problems, not finding out what the solution should look like for the problems of tommorow. Right?
Any perspectives?
2 comments so far
Asking your customer what s/he needs today is usually just an entry point into a domain that may or may not contain something of value. Very often customers report symptoms, situations, not real problems. It is the task of the problem solver to transition from the situation to a problem, determine its value, evolution path, and, if the value is high enough, try solve it.
Keep in mind that quality of the problem is the most important factor determining the quality of your future solution.
I would add to Eugene’s comment that a clearly stated 1) problem and 2) desired outcome(s) are essential for determing the quality of the solution. How well your solution addresses the desired outcomes is one measure of success.
However, I disagree that the “the task of the problem solver [is] to transition from the situation to a problem.” I believe the first step is to understand the situation before redefining the problem. That is, not the situation as it’s presented to you, but the situation as you understand it after investigation. The question then becomes: how far upstream do you go during this process of understanding the situation?
Perhaps an answer is that you go as far upstream as you want your solution to comprehensively address desired outcomes. And I believe part of the designer’s new role is to advise clients about these desired outcomes, which, IMO, need to account for time, adaptability, and sustainability. These values may not be expressed or understood by a client, but I think they are key to addressing the problems of today and the problems of tomorrow.