The example in Part 1 shows how studying your audience from a broad perspective can reveal some unexpected aspects to the problem and point to previously unexpected solutions. So, you ask, how does this translate to my decidedly non-milkshake-selling business? The lessons learned here map surprisingly well to situations where simply challenging assumptions early can lead to creative insights that can be leveraged for greater profits, market growth, increased efficiencies, and more.

When your project is mired in efforts to answer questions like, “do users prefer blue or green backgrounds on our web pages” be sure someone (like, you, for example) has already tackled the question- “what is the customer really trying to accomplish here?” This holds true for interaction design as well as establishing key business objectives.

It follows that the more you know about your users’ circumstances (how enthusiastic are they to complete this task, how motivated are they in general, what other things do they have to worry about related to this function, and so on) the better you will be equipped to solve their problem- and more importantly- to solve the *right* problem or problems.

We are problem-solvers. By ‘we’ I mean, we humans. Those of us who solve problems for a living -such as Business Analysts and Software Designers fall prey to the error of thinking too quickly that we know what the solution looks like.

Every now and then we trip ourselves up by rushing into a solution before we fully understand the problem. It happens every day: we find ourselves faced with a business problem and just can’t help diving in to solve it. Many times, our experience and intuition land us on the right solution. Unfortunately, the rush-to-solution method is not 100% accurate.

Solving a business problem requires an accurate understanding of the issues and their context. Sometimes the root of the problem is elusive. Even more dangerous- sometimes the root appears obvious and long-held [false] assumptions can obscure the nature of the real problem.

One technique that can reliably shed light on an issue is to build an affinity for your customers (or in the case of software development, your primary users). Combine that with new ways to think about how your audience uses your product or service and you’re on your way to revealing irrelevant, bad, good and great solutions.