I just spent the entire last week teaching people to not fall in love
with their solution. Their precious babies. Their toggles. Flags. Buttons. Their solves. Oh, how many times l've fallen into that hole myself.
Solutions are easy to come up with. I like to say we have the best team in the world and they will come up with a great solution. But hopefully we're giving them the right problem to solve. Because otherwise they're going to solve the wrong problem brilliantly. Yep.
The truth is you really need to deeply understand the problem. Be immersed in it. Ruminate in it. More than anyone else. When you're the person in the room that understands the problem the most, the deepest, everything else will come easier. The ideating. The grooming. The planning. Executing. And mostly knowing when you will meet the ideal outcome of your customer.
That means visiting and observing prospects and customers in their
environment. Walk. Drive. Fly. Just get there. And get there often.
Over and over again. That means calling, connecting, talking frequently, asking them what success looks like and what failure looks like for them.
Easier said than done. But you must get the reps to build the
muscle.
Even better if you do this with a partner on the team so you're hearing and seeing the same things. There's a great, short, no-nonsense book on this topic of customer development called The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick I'd highly recommend. Here's why I like it; Your mom will lie to you all day long about how great you are. But if you learn how to ask questions the way Rob Fitzgerald lays them out you can't get trapped into answers that won't serve you.
So stop falling in love with your solution. Be that person on the team that falls in love with the problem - those are the people that
are going to win.
Best always,
Carey PS: Does this resonate with you? Reply to me - I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this article. What else do you
want me to write about?