Solving the right problem

In the last quarter I’ve had the same expression hit me from many angles. Whether it was a mantra of my product team, a criticism of the same, or an interview question posed to me. How do you know you are solving the right problem?

Interestingly enough, I think the question of solving the right problem is actually the root job of a product manager. It’s our job to understand the market so well that we are identifying problems that they actually have, and ensuring that solving it will make sense for the business. Walking that line.

The challenge of solving the “right problem” was super evident in my last role. We were a marketplace company. That’s what the marketing said, that’s what the investors invested in, that’s what the “market wanted”. Or did they? Our product team spent a lot of time in market. Multiple times a week someone from the team was out in front of a customer or prospect, validating problems and ideas. What we found was that our customers didn’t shop around for certain products. Depending on the item they were pretty brand loyal, and switching products or vendors had high switching costs. Is that the making of a marketplace? Not sure.

Our job in that case, as the product managers was to understand what problems the customers actually had, and solve them. What we learned was the efficient and accurate ordering was key. While the jury is still out on what it would take to get people to switch products, the really big lesson from that experience was that starting from the solution (in this case a marketplace) may have sent the product down a direction that wasn’t going to result in more business. While the venn diagrams (marketplace, and ordering efficiently) probably have overlap, it was not a 100% match. Lots more discovery and experimentation needed to be done to figure out how to solve customers problems while meeting the business goals.

Years ago I took Pragmatic Marketing training, and am still friends with my instructor (Steve Johnson) to this day. His mantras of “you are not your target market”, or “your opinion, while interesting, is irrelevant” stayed with me. When it comes to solving the right problem, they resonate again. Even when you think you know your customers’ perspective, you need to stay curious about the problem. You need to keep your ego out of the solution. The nuances of the job they are trying to do are subtle, and your job to discover.

This is where the line between strategy & business goals and problems customers have become a knife edge. What if you figure out that your strategy is not right? How do you balance what you’ve said you do with what the customers need? This comes back to a painful learning I’ve stubbed my toe on too many times. Concentrating on the problem not the solution. If you’re committed to solving a problem for a customer then the solution is flexible. If you become too wedded to the solution you run the risk of solving the wrong problem.

My teams will roll their eyes, but there’s a reason why I always say “What problem are we trying to solve here” It reminds me and everyone else why we are there. Our job if nothing else is to identify their problems and solve it for our customers. And solving the one that the customer doesn’t have is a waste of everyone’s time.