For many startup businesses, finding a problem worth solving is always a challenge. According to a CNBC article written by Tom Huddleston, today, 43% of all startups fail, and approximately 95% of all new products introduced by business organizations are not accepted by consumers (Huddleston, 2023). This means that firms are developing products that no one is demanding in the market, which means that they are not addressing the problems that people encounter. Therefore, what are the problems that are worth solving, and how do you effectively identify them?
The first way to determine if a problem is worth solving is to assess its relevance and impact on people. According to Bianchi & Verganti (2021), innovation projects are always aimed at addressing some hypothetical issues or inconveniences that customers experience. For a business organization to identify truly relevant problems, it has to consider those that exist where consumers do not have or have insufficient solutions to the fundamental issues they are experiencing. Therefore, when a problem affects many people, or it seems like a niche issue, it must be something worth solving.
Another way to recognize that a problem is worth solving is if it can be solved. This is a type of problem that must be solved for people to live without adverse effects. For example, when a business organization implements strategies to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by a certain percentage, it becomes an “a-must solvable issue” that I will have to consider.
Another way is that it must include the marketable problem. For instance, as an employee, the solution I bring to my executives must be profitable and not depend on the amount they pay to customers. Therefore, I must determine whether I am addressing a given issue or if I am presenting insufficient data.
References
Bianchi, M., & Verganti, a. R. (2021). Entrepreneurs as designers of problems worth solving. Journal of Business Venturing Design, 1(1-2), 100006.
Huddleston, T. (2023). The 3 biggest reasons startups failed in 2022, according to a poll of almost 500 founders. CNBC.