Going Around Problems

By Elyse Ball

We’ve all been told things like “you’ve got to tackle your problems head on” or “the only way out is through.” Well, as a student of Netflix (Class of 2021), I can tell you that’s not true. Over the past few weeks, I’ve binge watched my way through both Lupin and Queen’s Gambit and uncovered incontrovertible evidence that there’s pretty much always another way to win. 

I suspect that I enjoyed these shows, because they’re about clever, creative problem solvers, who are definitely underdogs. If you have millions of dollars and hundreds of people on your team, a straightforward approach to overcome a thorny problem is perfectly fine. 

But if you’re a 20-something American chess protégé going up against Russian grandmasters, or a thief who came from nothing taking on the rich and powerful, or even a small group of innovators and entrepreneurs trying to get your first product to market, you might need to take a less direct – and more creative – approach.

What does this mean?

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When you’re faced with a challenge, instead of barreling headfirst through it, take a few minutes to see if there’s a way around it. Ask yourself things like:

What am I assuming is true that might not be?
​I worked with a materials science company that got user feedback saying their product needs to “work faster.” Initially, we took this at face value and the scientists went back to the lab to build a faster device. Then, we started questioning how a faster product would change our users’ process. As we dug in, we realized that people don’t experience time in logical ways. Basically, the users didn’t like standing around waiting for the product to work, but they were totally cool with letting the product work in the background while they did something else. (If you think this sounds strange, ask yourself why 10 minutes in line at the BMV feels like an eternity?) Based on this insight, we’ve started thinking about ways to make the product “feel faster” to our users, without any need for major technical breakthroughs.

Is there a simpler way to solve this problem?
I worked with a wearables company that was getting a lot of noise in their data. Some team members wanted to write more complicated software code as a way to solve the problem. This would have taken several months of effort. But an engineer proposed a super simple physical way to fix the problem, saving months of hard work. I’ve also seen this play out in reverse, where software provides a simple method for solving a problem that would take months to solve by fixing electronics or chemistry. Getting people from outside your area of expertise to brainstorm potential fixes can provide a fast pathway to a solution that just works.

Can I narrow or broaden my focus to get better results?
One startup I work with decided to target their initial product launch at a small group of experts. These experts make up only about 2% of the overall market. But this target group comes with a huge advantage: they already know how to use the data the startup is generating. This allows the startup to avoid building complicated software to interpret the data. Instead, they can hit the market right away with data their current technology can already collect. They can start selling and improving their product sooner.

How would I tackle this problem if I only had half the time or money?
A really wise startup advisor once told me that the things that kill startup companies fastest are (1) having too little money or (2) having too much money. Even if you’ve got some resources, pretend you don’t. Stay scrappy by asking what you’d do if you didn’t have that money. For example, a medical device company I know decided to take a more direct, but slightly riskier, approach to how they did their FDA regulatory submission. The team had received some advice from experts, which encouraged them to take a conservative approach to the FDA. But they realized that this conservative approach would take longer and cost twice as much money. The company, a group of consummate entrepreneurs, embraced a little more risk in exchange for speed and cost savings.

So, when you’re faced with a thorny problem, don’t take the road most travelled. Hold the problem up to the light. Look at it from different angles. Bring in people whose expertise and perspectives differ from yours. Interact regularly with your customers. And most importantly, be open to solving the problem a different way.