{"id":3003,"date":"2010-07-26T03:00:18","date_gmt":"2010-07-26T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=3003"},"modified":"2013-07-10T01:00:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T06:00:31","slug":"solution-in-search-of-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/","title":{"rendered":"Solution in Search of a Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Most view innovation a big bang type of exercise &#8211; or an &#8220;aha&#8221; moment that came out of nowhere. Indeed, cogito ergo sum &#8211; an invention akin to &#8220;out nothing, something&#8221;. A look back in history will tell us that this notion is completely false.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, looking at the <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/the-apple-iphone-supply-chain\/304\/\">components of the iPhone<\/a>, you&#8217;ll see that the apple <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/the-apple-iphone-supply-chain\/304\/\">iphone components<\/a> were not invented or created from nothing &#8211; they&#8217;re in fact plain vanilla components used for other devices:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Samsung: The Singapore facility manufactures CPU and Video processing chips.<\/li>\n<li>Infineon: The Singapore facility manufactures Baseband Communications hardware.<\/li>\n<li>Primax Electronics: The Taiwan facility manufactures Digital Camera Modules.<\/li>\n<li>Foxconn International: The Taiwan facility manufactures internal circuitry.<\/li>\n<li>Entery Industrial: The Taiwan facility manufactures connectors.<\/li>\n<li>Cambridge Silicon: The Taiwan facility manufactures bluetooth chipsets.<\/li>\n<li>Umicron Technology: The Taiwan facility manufactures printed circuit boards.<\/li>\n<li>Catcher Technology: The Taiwan facility manufactures stainless metal casings.<\/li>\n<li>Broadcomm: The U.S. based facility builds touch screen controllers.<\/li>\n<li>Marvell: The U.S. based facility builds 802.11 specific parts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The Apple Shenzhen, China facility assembles the hardware, holds inventory, and handles the pick, pack, and ship steps of the fulfillment process.<\/p>\n<p>But, this type of thinking breeds another type of thinking that I&#8217;d like to address: <span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Solutions in Search of a Problem<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Solution in Search of a Problem<\/h2>\n<p>In Lean Thinking, it&#8217;s clear that we must first understand the problem, it&#8217;s root causes, and then addressing each root cause appropriately with simple, effective countermeasures. But, this works effectively well when the symptoms are known and there is a problem that has been articulated.<\/p>\n<p>But, what if the problem isn&#8217;t articulated? What if there is a problem, but it&#8217;s just difficult to put words to it.\u00a0 Or, what if there is a problem, but people don&#8217;t even know it&#8217;s a problem.<\/p>\n<h2>We Don&#8217;t Know What We Don&#8217;t Know<\/h2>\n<p>Take, for example, the Proctor &amp; Gamble Swiffer mop vacuum. In that situation, a cross-functional team of IDEO and P&amp;G team members observed stay-at-home moms actually mopping their floors. What they observed was fascinating:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>They were spending more time cleaning their mops than cleaning the floor<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This observation led to the invention of the Swiffer Mop.<\/p>\n<p>Here was clearly a situation where<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">there was a problem &#8211; but, people didn&#8217;t know it was a problem.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Swiffer example is a situation where a solution was created to solve an unarticulated problem. This is clearly different from creating a solution when there is no problem to be solved.<\/p>\n<p>In Lean Thinking, the approach that IDEO took is what is practiced as <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/genchi-genbutsu-go-and-see-part-1\/2896\/\">Genchi Genbutsu<\/a>. It&#8217;s principles come from the science of ethnography.<\/p>\n<h2>A Wants Versus Needs Matrix<\/h2>\n<p>A wants-needs matrix to make your decisions is sometimes not helpful &#8211; especially since we know that some needs we don&#8217;t even know. \u00a0For example,<\/p>\n<table style=\"height: 204px;\" width=\"417\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<colgroup span=\"1\">\n<col span=\"1\" width=\"113\" \/>\n<col span=\"2\" width=\"152\" \/> <\/colgroup>\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<td width=\"113\" height=\"68\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"152\"><strong>Need<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"152\"><strong>Don&#8217;t Need<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<td width=\"113\" height=\"67\"><strong>Want<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"152\">Food<\/td>\n<td width=\"152\">iPad<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<td width=\"113\" height=\"67\"><strong>Don&#8217;t Want<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"152\">Exercise<\/td>\n<td width=\"152\">Taxes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Consciously, I might say I don&#8217;t need an iPad. But, after using one for several days, perhaps I couldn&#8217;t imagine my life without one.<\/p>\n<h2>Semi-Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Most true innovations are innovative because they solve a problem. The nature of those problems are what get complicated because there are some problems that we don&#8217;t even recognize are problems yet.<\/p>\n<h2>Be Done Now<\/h2>\n<p>The practice of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/genchi-genbutsu-go-and-see-part-1\/2896\/\">go and see<\/a>&#8221; is critical. It&#8217;s an application of Ethnography and allows us to observe, empathize, and see what others may not see or recognize. Being able to see what others don&#8217;t see leads to innovation and in exposing unrecognized problems and solutions.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most view innovation a big bang type of exercise &#8211; or an &#8220;aha&#8221; moment that came out of nowhere. Indeed, cogito ergo sum &#8211; an invention akin to &#8220;out nothing, something&#8221;. A look back in history will tell us that this notion is completely false. In fact, looking at the components of the iPhone, you&#8217;ll [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":9580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Solutions in Search of a Problem | How to solve business problems<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"in lean thinking there is an emphasis on understanding the problem. but sometimes, we don&#039;t know what the problem is or we can&#039;t articulate it. genchi genbutsu then becomes a very important discipline to follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solutions in Search of a Problem | How to solve business problems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"in lean thinking there is an emphasis on understanding the problem. but sometimes, we don&#039;t know what the problem is or we can&#039;t articulate it. genchi genbutsu then becomes a very important discipline to follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OpEx Learning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/get.shmula\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-26T10:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-10T06:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"346\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"346\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Uday Kawar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@shmula\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@shmula\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Uday Kawar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/\",\"name\":\"Solutions in Search of a Problem | How to solve business problems\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-26T10:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-10T06:00:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd\"},\"description\":\"in lean thinking there is an emphasis on understanding the problem. but sometimes, we don't know what the problem is or we can't articulate it. genchi genbutsu then becomes a very important discipline to follow\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg\",\"width\":346,\"height\":346,\"caption\":\"how to solve business problems\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lean Manufacturing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Solution in Search of a Problem\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/\",\"name\":\"OpEx Learning\",\"description\":\"Lean Six Sigma. Simplified.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd\",\"name\":\"Uday Kawar\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Solutions in Search of a Problem | How to solve business problems","description":"in lean thinking there is an emphasis on understanding the problem. but sometimes, we don't know what the problem is or we can't articulate it. genchi genbutsu then becomes a very important discipline to follow","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Solutions in Search of a Problem | How to solve business problems","og_description":"in lean thinking there is an emphasis on understanding the problem. but sometimes, we don't know what the problem is or we can't articulate it. genchi genbutsu then becomes a very important discipline to follow","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/","og_site_name":"OpEx Learning","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/get.shmula","article_published_time":"2010-07-26T10:00:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-07-10T06:00:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":346,"height":346,"url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Uday Kawar","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@shmula","twitter_site":"@shmula","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Uday Kawar","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/","name":"Solutions in Search of a Problem | How to solve business problems","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg","datePublished":"2010-07-26T10:00:18+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-10T06:00:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd"},"description":"in lean thinking there is an emphasis on understanding the problem. but sometimes, we don't know what the problem is or we can't articulate it. genchi genbutsu then becomes a very important discipline to follow","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/how-to-solve-business-problems.jpg","width":346,"height":346,"caption":"how to solve business problems"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/solution-in-search-of-a-problem\/3003\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lean Manufacturing","item":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Solution in Search of a Problem"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/","name":"OpEx Learning","description":"Lean Six Sigma. Simplified.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/#\/schema\/person\/9335b5223b67189b35bda7d6be11c3fd","name":"Uday Kawar"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}