In this entry we’ll discuss SOLUTIONS. We recently talked about OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION and then VISION as important steps in the
product development journey. Journey? Hmmm. It’s actually a pretty good analogy, so let’s ride it. In terms of a journey, OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION is the beginning and VISION is the end.
Normally you’ll start a journey at point A, and hope to arrive safely at point B. In developing a product, you start by identifying the opportunity, that’s point A. Point A is a dark, flawed place where pain and problems exist. Point B is our vision: a better world, the problem is fixed, the sun is shining, the pain is relieved and life is made better by your idea in some way.
But how do we get from point A to point B? That’s where the SOLUTIONS come in. Solutions provide us a path to move from A to B. Here’s a simple example. Suppose we have strong evidence that basketball players have trouble keeping track of the time left on the shot clock. Not the most important problem in the world admittedly, but a problem/opportunity nonetheless. High level basketball moves so fast the players don’t have the ability to keep track of time, even with digital shot clocks displayed all over the stadium. So this is our world at point A – players are not well aware of the shot clock. The vision for point B then should be pretty obvious…imagine a world where players know how much time is left. All we need is a solution, our road from point A to point B.
In a journey, there are many ways to get from point A to point B, and a good traveler will get out the maps (Google or otherwise), train and plane timetables, in order to consider many paths and options. Designers should do the same when considering solutions to achieve their vision. The cats at Novation believe the best way to develop solutions is to start with a brainstorming session. A simple 15 minute session can generate hundreds of ideas – some of them good.
“Some of them!” you exclaim?
Yes, that’s right….not all of the ideas are good ones. A lot of the ideas generated in brainstorming are pretty useless, but all you need is a single good solution. If you have scores of ideas to sort through it is very likely you’ll come up with the one that works to get you to your vision quickly.
In the next few blog entries, we will explain how we brainstorm so you can develop multiple solutions, and more importantly, we will discuss how to evaluate those solutions so you can find the right one for you.
Is there more than one solution to most problems?