What's the Real Problem Statement?

Many years ago, when working for Intel, I had a manager (a very good one) who managed by problem statement. One day he pulled me into a conference room, and there were three problem statements on the whiteboard. He said, "these are our group's three biggest problem statements. I will take my best people, assign one person to each problem, and organize our team around solving these problem statements. Which one do you choose?"

This experience came back to me this week as I talked to a client experiencing softer-than-expected demand and sales. And as we all do, they were gravitating to discussions around all the actions they could take. When things are going differently than planned, the key discussion is NOT around what actions to take. The key question is: are we focused on the right problem statement? Do we know what we are actually trying to solve so that our actions are purposeful and aligned to solve the core of our issue?

In this instance with the client, there were actually three different potential problem statements, all of which would warrant different focus and actions. I'll use this example to illustrate the point.

With softer-than-expected sales and demand,

Problem Statement #1: We have an End User Demand problem. 

In this instance, customers are reducing their spending (meaning they are simply not buying our product right now), or we have saturated our target market, meaning our target customers bought what we expect them to buy. In this case, the viable options may be to expand to other geographies/markets, attract new customers, or simply slow down production and retract operational spending temporarily to weather through what is perceived as a temporary dip.  

Problem statement #2: We have a Sales/Channel problem.  

In this instance, the demand is there, but we aren't reaching the customers who want to buy. Either our retail partners are featuring or buying other products or our sales people aren't getting in front of the right customers.  In this case, the viable options to solve this problem are strengthening sales reach and expanding channel mindshare/focus to sell our product.

Problem statement #3: We have a Brand/Value Proposition problem (in the eyes of our end users).

In this instance, the demand is there, and customers have access to our product, but they are simply choosing something different. This is a more serious problem and effectively requires a focused effort to rebuild the value proposition and differentiation story in customers' eyes. 

In each of these problem statements, the actions you would take and the lead owners of the solutions to the problem statements (sales, marketing, operations) are different.  

Without clarity of the actual problem statement we have to solve, we tend to develop a scattershot approach to solutions. And with any scattershot approach, it is less effective than a laser-focused approach.   

In situations where results are not going according to plan, the key is to stop and ask the question: 

Do I really have my hands around the core problem statement I am trying to solve?

It will make a night-and-day difference in the effectiveness of the solutions you create.