[Check abnormal net]-20160402-solve "problem", do not solve the problem

Engineers have a natural instinct for solving problems, especially the bugs of his system. So as long as there is a problem, he wants to solve them all, it seems that as long as the more problems can be solved, he can create more value. Such logic in the enterprise software development, maintenance, may be right, but to get inside the consumer market, but almost the most important reason to kill entrepreneurs.

The value of the problem

By definition, the value of each question is not the same. Some problems are very painful for consumers (cancer, oxygen), and some are no big deal (abrasions, odors). Some problems are very serious for some people (no umbrellas on rainy days), but not for others (no umbrellas on a sunny day). Since entrepreneurship is the creation of value, that from the perspective of the past, there should not be no difference to solve the problem.

Opportunity cost

More importantly, the entrepreneurial team's resources are actually very limited, whether from human, money, time, patience and determination. Therefore, compared with the big enterprises, you are not qualified to solve each of the immediate problems-more than one, you will be less a chance. It's like going to a playground, you have a limited token on hand, and of course you can't play every machine.

Valuable advice

When it comes to solving problems, what happens most often is, "listen to the consumer very well." It's strange, isn't Jamie telling us to listen to the market? Well, it's kind of like "listen to your mother." Of course you want to hear it, but you can't listen to it all, can you? A software PRODUCT, the most feared is to help all the people solve all the problems, because ultimately it is equal to help no one solve no problem. And too listen to the words of consumers, bring this effect.

Everyone can solve the problem, but not everyone knows what to solve.

By definition, there are so many engineers in the world, and theoretically all the problems are solved. But the reality is that we still have a lot of pain in our lives. Why? The answer is very simple, because in the training of engineers, we are only taught how to solve the problem, with the most efficient, most logical, the most large-scale method, but from beginning to end, in fact, no one taught us a more important thing, that is how to identify, which problems are most worthy of being resolved. So the reason why most entrepreneurial teams fail is that there is no way to solve the problem at all. The reason they fail is often to spend too much time on issues that are not worth solving.

Which problems should be resolved

Therefore, as an entrepreneur, the focus is not to hone your ability to solve problems, more important is the ability to judge which problems should be solved. In your limited time, if there is no way to solve a very painful problem, then your chances of success are negligible. In other words, you should not spend too much time on bugs, but just spend time on the bugs that "blocks user experience core functionality".

In the same way, teams tend to spend too little time on getting started and using interfaces, because when you turn on statistics, more than half of the users have already left your site before they experience the core functionality. Registration in particular, the most common obstacle, before verifying the core issues, why build a high-wall users to block outside the door?

All in all, you have to remember that almost all entrepreneurial teams have a strong ability to solve problems, but in the end, the real difference between success and failure is just your ability to find the right questions. So, before you follow the engineer's instincts and solve the next bug, the next question, think clearly, is this really something you should do?

[Check abnormal net]-20160402-solve "problem", do not solve the problem