What is the problem we are trying to solve?

“What is the problem we are trying to solve?”

Oh, how many businesses who could take things to the next level by stopping long enough to ask that question! If we only paused long enough to ask—and answer—that question, how much unneeded work and wasted time could be saved? This could be called a tactical pause¹. It doesn’t hamper momentum; it prevents momentum from being generated in the wrong direction. Let’s look at some examples:

“Fix the content…make it match the other section.” What is the real issue here? Is the problem that a product’s price is different in two separate sections of the website? Is simply adjusting the price in the offending section the way to deal with this? Maybe a manual change is warranted as a short-term “band-aid fix” to prevent disagreeable customer issues, but that doesn’t solve the REAL problem: Price isn’t being controlled from a single source of truth². What is the underlying issue causing this? Is there a single source of truth for product pricing? Did someone manually enter price data where it should have been completely automated?

“We’re not selling enough. We need a new website.” There is no supporting data to suggest a new or revamped website will increase conversion rate³. A new site may be warranted, especially if it’s older, out of date, doesn’t follow best practices, isn’t mobile-friendly, or any combination of factors. But it is an errant assumption to believe a makeover will directly help you sell more. It might help. It might not. If done well, a website remodel will benefit the business—no question there, but that’s separate from sales volume. Back to the issue: if a brand new pretty website won’t help me sell, what will? What are the real reasons I’m not meeting my sales targets? (I say “reasons” plural because often it’s more than one factor in play.) Questions worth asking: What about traffic? Are customers actually darkening our digital doorway? Checkout flow: Do we make it easy for customers to buy from us? Speed: How long does it take for our home page to load? Call to action (CTA): Without scrolling, does a customer landing on our website immediately see some sort of way to meaningfully engage with the business (for example, ‘Shop now,’ ‘Read more,’ ‘Schedule a free consult,’ etc.)? Customers: Are we exhausting our existing customer base instead of trying to gain new customers?

“My email inbox is too overwhelming. I’m going to create a new email account.” There’s nothing like a blank slate, a fresh start. It feels liberating and life-giving. But how long will this “fix” last? Not long! If you haven’t taken the time to discern why your other email account devolved into the chaotic, spammy mess it is, then it will only be a matter of time before your brand new, beautifully-clean email inbox looks just the same. So what is the REAL problem here? The real problem is not the absence of a new email account. The real problem is likely a combination of several factors: poor subscribe/unsubscribe habits, giving out your email in too many places, lack of regular inbox maintenance, wishful thinking (“I’ll get back to that blog article later”), and using your inbox as a to-do list. If you do not correct the underlying factors, the problem will simply recreate itself. I offer help for the inbox-weary. See my free inbox zero printable cheat sheet as a good place to start.

“The old product pages don’t match the new ones. Update them.” Is this the real issue? Here’s what I would want to know: Why do your products on your eCommerce⁴ website not follow a template? If you can’t adjust everything in one place, why not? So the real issue isn’t style discrepancies. It’s the fact that the different products are styled on a per-product basis. A far better, long-term solution: Style the product page once. Then, via whichever template options your platform offers, you use that single template style for everything. All that changes is the content, but HOW it looks becomes identical across the board. Don’t want the main tagline to be blue anymore? Change it in the template and…BAM…now all your products reflect the change instantly.

In summary, it is crucial to business success to consider the root cause (and therefore the root solution) of an issue. This also very much applies to everyday life! If we constantly get a blister from a certain pair of shoes, it makes far more sense to give those shoes away than to continue using band-aids or moleskin to alleviate the discomfort. Tech is no different. Ask yourself the “why” questions: Why is this happening? What’s the real issue? What can I do to implement a lasting fix? Let’s be done with superficial answers and never settle for anything less than the full truth.

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Footnotes

1. A tactical pause is a brief, intentional stop to align on the real problem (or goal) before taking action—so you don’t pour effort into the wrong fix. ↩

2. A single source of truth means one place (e.g., a product database or settings page) that defines the data; everything else pulls from it so you don’t end up with conflicting versions in different spots. ↩

3. In eCommerce, “conversion” usually means a visitor took a desired action—most often completing a purchase, but it can also mean signing up for a newsletter, creating an account, or another goal you track. ↩

4. eCommerce means buying or selling online; an eCommerce website is your online store. ↩