From the course: Building Your Innovation Skills

Choose the problem you want to solve through innovation

From the course: Building Your Innovation Skills

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Choose the problem you want to solve through innovation

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- When it comes to innovation, it's important to always start with a problem to solve. You don't want to create a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. If you did, it would result in lots of wasted time, effort, and resources, and I'm sure you wouldn't want that, right? Choosing the problem to solve is a pre-step before starting the diagnose stage. Innovation is based on creating solutions that address people's problems, and the best way for you to start your innovation journey, however, is starting with you and focusing on something in the realm of your control. You can absolutely apply what you learn in this course to other people, but in order for you to get some practice, focus on you first. How do you know what the problem to solve is? Look for pain points. A pain point is something that causes frustration. It's something that bothers you and pains you when you think about it. It's something that makes you say, "Ow," or wince when you consider it. Pain points aren't simply physical. They can be emotional or mental too. I want you to reflect for a moment. Consider your role at work. What's a pain point you're facing right now? Is there something that really frustrates you, something that pains you when you think about it, something that makes you say, "Ow"? If you don't have any pains at work, I want you to think about this in the context of your life at home. What's a pain point at home you'd love to solve? I'd like you to write down whatever comes to your mind. You don't need to pick just one. Go ahead and do this right now. Press pause so you have time. You got a good list? What I want you to do now is reflect over the list you just created, and then choose one pain point to address. Circle the pain point you're going to move forward with. This is the problem you'll solve for in this course. You got your pain point? Great. You're now ready to apply the innovation process and see how you can address that pain point. After all, the point of innovation is to create a new future. You are not going to let that pain point remain a pain point anymore. Let's move on to diagnose, the first stage in the innovation process.

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