I remember as kids whenever anyone did something wrong or weird, we would ask them “What is your problem?” Who knew that this would become a cornerstone to building a business?
Getting to know and understand the identified problem is always one of the first steps of coaching we do with new business owners. And often we revert back to this for existing businesses to better understand their market and find new opportunities for business.
So, what is the problem you are trying to solve? Why does the problem exist? Who are the people involved? What are the causes? What are the effects? What would be a better outcome? What is the ideal solution?
Using the 5 WHYs and keep asking the What, why, when, who and where questions assists in a full analysis of the problem. This is always done before the ideation around a product or solution. The key here is to firstly fully understand the whole problem, look for potential opportunities and then begin to formulate a strategy that will result in a solution, but more on that next week.