How to find the underlying problem of an apparent problem?
Are we really sure about the problem we found?
Sometimes we may think that we have discovered a problem that is worth solving. However, this might be the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps there is an underlying issue or a series of issues that is invisible at the first sight.
Do you remember the rain and umbrella example? You observe that people buy umbrellas that are sold on the pavements when the rain starts. The apparent problem is the rain itself. And, the solution is the umbrella.
However, what if the underlying problem is different?
For example, you start talking to people who use umbrellas. Some of them are white collars who use public transit with a lot of changes. So, they have to walk a lot. You realized that, among these white collars, the ones who have meetings early in the morning tend to use umbrellas more than the ones who haven’t got any meetings. The ones who don’t have any meetings just walk faster or run when the rain starts.
So, lets take a step back and try to understand the REAL problem that this particular customer persona has. If they have a meeting, they don’t want to be seen as wet. If they don’t have a meeting, they simply walk fast or run during the changes to be less wet. However, they don’t have a REAL problem with being wet!
So, the UNDERLYING problem here is having a bad visuality during the meetings. They don’t really care about being wet that much.
Now that we have found the REAL problem that a particular customer type has, we can get into generating ideas to solve this problem.
A new powerful drying tool that would suck all the water on the clothes and hair, covering the wrinkles? A suit with a water-proof layer on it?
What else could be a solution that would throw umbrellas out of the competition?