Big ideas come at the intersection of a problem that people want to have solved and an easy-to-implement solution. The solution is an equal, but often overlooked, element of this intersection. It is important for a solution to really work for the customer, and you need to spend just as much time testing your solution as you did validating your problem. If people want a problem solved, they will find their way to the best solution (and you want that to be yours!).
Let me share my ideas on what makes a great solution:
- It’s straight-forward.
The more effort or training it takes to use your solution the less likely it is that someone will use it. Don’t over complicate your solution. Users need to see exactly how your solution fits into their current workflow and habits.
- It has low switching costs.
Watch out for creating barriers to entry. If users need to buy additional hardware or need to make other changes to use your solution, this will just add to the time, cost and effort. This takes away from the overall value proposition. In general, people will accept less benefits over incurring added costs.
- It’s taken into consideration the unintended consequences.
This is a big trap, especially in business-to-business (B2B) markets. Corporations are complex, interrelated entities. Often multiple stakeholders use the same data or interact with a process. Manufacturing processes sometimes create by-products that are useful in other ways. You need to be confident in how your solution impacts the existing process and every potential stakeholder. Make sure you don’t create new headaches.
- It provides a big, substantial difference to your target audience.
If you say it will cost less, it needs to cost less. By a lot. People and organizations inherently don’t like change and will be inclined to stick with the status quo for small improvements. Big also needs to be in the context of the decision makers. What might feel big to you as a student, may not really move the needle inside a big corporation with multimillion dollar budgets. In other businesses, pennies have an impact.
- It delivers benefits fast.
Benefits need to be immediate and measurable. The more difficult it is to measure or the farther into the future the benefits are, the less inclined users will be to use your solution. This also applies to avoidance of risk. Most people don’t want to pay much to avoid an uncertain, possible, future risk.
So, what should you take away from this? Use your minimum viable products (MVPs) and pilots to not just test functionality of the product, but also to test assumptions about how your solution fits into your customer’s life. Know your user inside and out. Know how they think, how they work and how they make decisions.
Get on the right path to creating your big idea!
Joanna is a Business Innovation Advisor with Brights Lights Innovations helping small businesses create profitable growth with accelerated times to market. Since 2007, she held various B2B Marketing Executive roles with Westinghouse Electric Company. She helped create numerous business opportunities leveraging a range of advanced technologies. Joanna’s specific expertise includes business model design, product concept development, financial planning, and partnerships with early-adopter customers. Joanna has collaborated with a number of educational organizations on the cutting edge of marketing and innovation, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The Institute for the Study of Business to Business Markets (the only B2B Think Tank) at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, and the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State. She has a BA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.She also earned a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification.