Industry winners and losers are changing at a dizzying speed. No one can hide. Innovative companies – large and small – are disrupting so many industries. Sometimes it just increases competition, at other times the incumbents go out of business. Think about how industries have changed due to Amazon, Netflix, Airbnb, Charles Schwab, and Kayak, just to mention a few.

Established companies need to be serious about innovation to survive, let alone thrive. However, for many this is not within their comfort zone. In my interview published by Inc, I answer:

• Where do companies most often go wrong with innovation?
  
• What are some of the innovation challenges faced by companies at different stages in their lifecycle?
  
• What are some ways that innovators can work more effectively with those who perform other roles in an organization?

Read more at Inc - The Secret to Business Success That Many Entrepreneurs Forget.

We all have a natural tendency to jump to generating solutions. I do it. Admit it—you probably do too. However, in the process we make flawed assumptions about the problem we are solving. 

Some risks in jumping to solutions, based on a quick guess at the problem include:

• Problem is ill defined
  
• Problem might not be a significant issue for customers
  
• Problem might be perceived differently by target customers (you are not always a member of the target customer segment)
  
• Problem might be superficial and not the real issue
  

Remember that the problem is not always what it first seems to be. Leo McGinneva described why people buy quarter-inch drill bits: “They don’t want quarter-inch bits. They want quarter-inch holes.” And Charles Revson made a distinction regarding the business of Revlon: “In the factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope.” 

Therefore, we need to dig deep to uncover the root cause of the problem. 

Painstorming
Painstorming is one approach to understanding the problem as a team:

• Define the target customer segment
  
• Develop a list of potential problems target customers are facing
  
• Pick the ideas that seem to be the most frequent, most frustrating problems
  
• Develop hypotheses about the root causes of the problems
• Test your root cause hypotheses with customers
• Refine the definition of the problems so that they are clear and incorporate the learnings from customers
  

Once we truly understand the problem, we can brainstorm solutions. This way we will be solving a real, meaningful problem for which customers are craving a solution.