example of problem solving in marketing

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7 Proven Problem Solving Techniques for Marketing Managers

• May 13, 2024
• by Steven Austin

As a marketing manager, your job is all about finding creative solutions to complex challenges. Whether you‘re trying to boost sluggish sales, outmaneuver the competition, or do more with a limited budget, problem solving skills are essential.

The most successful marketing leaders are expert problem solvers. They‘re able to analyze issues from multiple angles, think outside the box to generate innovative ideas, and then take decisive action to achieve the best possible outcomes.

But problem solving isn‘t an innate talent that you‘re either born with or not. It‘s a skill that can be learned, practiced, and mastered over time. By developing your problem solving abilities, you‘ll be able to tackle bigger challenges, make smarter decisions, and add more value to your organization.

In this post, we‘ll equip you with 7 proven problem solving techniques used by top marketers. For each one, we‘ll explain what it is, how it works, and provide real-world examples and tools to help you put it into practice. Let‘s dive in!

1. Identify and define the problem

The first step to solving any problem is to identify exactly what the problem is. This may sound obvious, but it‘s a step that‘s often rushed or overlooked. Many attempted solutions fail because they‘re solving the wrong problem.

Start by gathering as much relevant information as you can. Collect data, talk to stakeholders, and study the situation from multiple angles. Aim to determine the root causes driving the visible symptoms.

For example, let‘s say your company‘s email open rates have been steadily declining for months. It would be easy to jump to solutions like changing the subject lines or sending frequency. But by digging deeper, you might discover that the real problem is that your email list is full of inactive subscribers who haven‘t opened a single email in over a year. Removing them would immediately boost open rates.

There are a couple useful tools that can help with root cause analysis:

5 Whys : This technique involves repeatedly asking "why" to drill down into the underlying drivers behind a problem. Starting with the initial problem, ask why it‘s happening. Then look at the answer and ask "why" again. After 5 iterations, you‘ll usually have identified a root cause.

Fishbone diagram : Also called a cause-and-effect diagram, this visual tool helps you categorize potential causes into major categories like people, equipment, materials, environment, processes, and so on. By filling out each "bone" of the diagram, you can see how different factors combine to create the overall problem.

2. Brainstorm potential solutions

Once you‘ve clearly defined the problem, it‘s time to generate ideas for how to solve it. The key here is to separate idea generation from evaluation.

Give yourself and your team total freedom to brainstorm without worrying if ideas are good or bad. Encourage creativity and out-of-the box thinking. The goal is quantity, not quality at this stage.

There are many different techniques you can use to fuel creative brainstorming:

Mind mapping : Start with your problem statement in the center and branch out with ideas, grouping related ideas together. Keep branching out until you‘ve exhausted all possibilities.

SCAMPER : Walk through the SCAMPER checklist of idea-spurring questions: Substitute something, Combine it with something else, Adapt something to it, Modify or magnify it, Put it to some other use, Eliminate something, Reverse or rearrange it.

Brainwriting : Rather than verbally sharing ideas, participants write down their ideas on sticky notes and place them in the middle of the table for others to read and build on. This neutralizes loud voices and encourages equal participation.

Starbursting : Focus the brainstorm by asking who, what, when, where, why, and how questions about the problem at hand.

3. Evaluate and select a solution

With a robust list of potential solutions in hand, now it‘s time to evaluate them and choose the best one. Rushing into action without thoroughly vetting options is a recipe for wasted time and resources.

To assess each potential solution, you‘ll want to gather input from people with different perspectives and consider questions like:

• How effective is this likely to be at solving the problem?
• What are the costs and resource requirements?
• How long will it take to implement and see results?
• What are the risks or potential negative consequences?
• Do we have the capabilities to execute this well?

You can use tools like a decision matrix, SWOT analysis or paired comparison analysis to guide your evaluation in a more systematic way. Getting input from a broad range of stakeholders also helps ensure you don‘t overlook important considerations.

For major decisions, you‘ll also need to think about the buy-in and change management needed for successful implementation. Choosing an analytically strong solution that meets huge resistance from stakeholders may be worse than an acceptable solution that everyone can get behind.

4. Develop an implementation plan

Even the best solution is only as good as its execution. So once you‘ve selected an approach, it‘s crucial to develop a thorough implementation plan.

Investing time to plan upfront will help you avoid unexpected obstacles, keep your team aligned, and hit your target outcomes. Here are some of the key elements to include in an implementation plan:

Action steps : Break the solution down into specific, concrete tasks that need to be completed. Make each one as clear and granular as possible, so there‘s no room for confusion.

Roles and responsibilities : Clarify exactly who is responsible for each action item. Make sure each person is clear on what they‘re expected to do, and how their part fits into the overall solution.

Timelines and milestones : Lay out the overall schedule for implementation, including key milestones and dependencies between tasks. Be realistic in your time estimates to avoid missed deadlines.

Resource requirements : Identify and secure any resources needed for successful implementation, such as budget, personnel, equipment, technology, or outside expertise.

If you‘re not familiar with them, I‘d suggest learning how to use Gantt charts, work breakdown structures (WBS), and RACI matrices. These tools are tailor-made for translating solutions into actionable plans.

5. Monitor implementation and evaluate results

Implementing a solution isn‘t a "set it and forget it" operation. You need to proactively monitor progress, track results, and course-correct as needed.

Start by defining what success looks like. What specific outcomes are you trying to achieve? What metrics will you use to measure those outcomes? And what targets will indicate that the problem has been solved to your satisfaction?

As you execute your implementation plan, you‘ll want to track progress and results in as close to real-time as possible. Tools like project dashboards and status reports can give you the necessary visibility. If you spot areas where execution is behind schedule or below target, drill down to diagnose why and decide if any adjustments are needed.

Even if the implementation goes perfectly, your team should still complete an after action review once the solution has been completed. Bring key players together and review questions like:

• What went well? What didn‘t go well?
• What did we learn that could be applied to future problems?
• If we had to do it over again, what would we do differently?

Regularly reflecting on and learning from each problem solving experience is one of the best ways to hone your skills over time.

6. Continuously improve problem solving skills

One of the traits that distinguishes great marketing leaders is that they‘re lifelong learners. No matter how experienced they are, they maintain a growth mindset and continuously work to expand their capabilities.

Problem solving is definitely a skill where there‘s always room to learn and improve. To keep leveling up your abilities, proactively seek out new challenges. Volunteer for initiatives and projects that will stretch your problem solving muscles. If you see a problem that‘s not being addressed, take the initiative to tackle it.

You can also deliberately build your problem solving tool kit. Read books and take courses to learn new frameworks, methodologies, and technologies you can apply. Look for opportunities to apply what you‘re learning to real-world situations.

Finally, make an effort to pass on what you know to others. By teaching and coaching less experienced colleagues, you‘ll clarify and cement your own understanding. And by investing in your team, you‘ll amplify your impact and effectiveness.

7. Cultivate key problem solving traits

While tools and techniques are important, the best problem solvers tend to also cultivate a few key attitudes and behaviors:

Intellectual curiosity : They have a deep desire to understand how things work and why. If something doesn‘t make sense, they dig into it until they figure it out.

Embrace of ambiguity : They‘re comfortable wading into uncertain or unclear situations. Where others see frustration, they see possibility.

Willingness to experiment : They view problem solving as an iterative process of trial and error. If an initial attempt doesn‘t work, they reframe it as a learning opportunity and keep trying.

Balance of analytical and creative thinking : They leverage both left-brain logic and right-brain creativity. They look at data to understand all angles of a problem, and then use their imagination to come up with original solutions.

Inclusivity of diverse perspectives : They know that their own knowledge is limited, so they actively seek out and listen to differing viewpoints. They harness cognitive diversity to see past blind spots and make better decisions.

By combining these traits with a robust problem solving skill set, you‘ll be well equipped to handle whatever challenges come your way.

As a marketing manager, solving problems is an inescapable part of your job. But by developing your problem solving skills, you can turn those challenges into opportunities.

The 7 techniques laid out in this post give you a versatile tool kit to tackle any issue – from declining sales to internal dysfunction. Master them and you‘ll be able to analyze complex situations, make smart decisions, and mobilize your team to achieve better results.

But remember, problem solving isn‘t a solo sport. The best leaders also invest in building the problem solving capabilities of their entire team. So share these techniques with your colleagues, and establish a shared language and approach to collaborative problem solving.

By making problem solving a core competency of your marketing organization, you‘ll be able to consistently turn even the thorniest challenges into elegant, effective solutions. And that‘s how you‘ll deliver breakout value to your company and your customers.

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Top Marketing Problems and Solutions: How to Strategically Combat Issues

In the world of marketing, there are a lot of innovative and creative campaigns that help businesses achieve great results. But an industry as vast and expansive as advertising also allows space for problems to arise. If you’ve experienced (or are currently experiencing) issues, you may feel like your troubles are unique. Take heart! You’re definitely not the only person — or company — going through digital marketing woes. 

Several situations have proven consistently tricky for many branding and marketing agencies all over the world. The COVID-19 pandemic was the stem of some of these issues like hiring, but others are just typical problems that many advertising agencies experience simply because they work in the marketing industry. 

We’re going to explore some of the most common types of situations that marketers find themselves facing, what solutions you can implement, signs that problems are occurring (even if you may not see it) and how a strong and set marketing strategy can help any agency avoid falling into the trap of common complications. 

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!

Common Marketing Problems You May Be Facing

The worst possible response to marketing problems is to freak out. First, you must understand that this is, sadly, much more normal than you’d expect. There are certain obstacles nearly everyone in the industry encounters at one time or another. 

Before diagnosing a situation, you should start by figuring out if it’s a marketing problem or a business problem. Although advertising agencies are called to fix marketing problems, if you do a deep dive into what’s going on, you may actually discover that it’s a problem connected to the business. 

• Business Problems: Any hurdle, situation or variation that leads to a difference between the desired objectives and actual accomplished results is a business problem. This type of issue can’t be solved with more marketing. For example, if your message isn’t connecting with the intended audience, saying it louder or more frequently isn’t going to fix anything. You’ve heard the saying “putting lipstick on a pig,” right? Well, dressing up your business with marketing when the inherent problem is much deeper than that won’t do a thing. 
• Marketing Problem: If you don’t have a business problem inhibiting your efforts from being effective, then you most likely have a marketing problem. This type of issue can be defined as any factors in a campaign that affect the results you may be looking for, like a lack of strategy, a bad understanding of your target audience or unengaging social media posts. These are the types of problems that we’re going to discuss today. 

So, what are the most common types of marketing or advertising challenges? Here are a few examples that many companies experience: 

Recruiting Talent

During the shutdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses had to adjust how they run their business , and marketing was no different. Now that the recovery and revival of “normal” is taking place, some agencies have found that hiring and keeping employees is a difficult task to undertake. The HR managers put much effort to make  team extension  as quality and profitable for their business as possible. 

Talented marketers are often in high demand, making recruiting and maintaining an accomplished staff an issue. Many marketing professionals have found ways to offer their staff benefits and positive work experiences including more flexibility, educational opportunities and higher salaries. 

Lack of Clear Strategy

About 50% of companies using digital marketing have no plan or strategy in place for their efforts. This is a problem because if you don’t know why and how you’re doing something, it will most likely not yield helpful or beneficial results. Having a plan of attack for all things, from email marketing and content creation to website design and social media, will enable you to make informed decisions and will most likely deliver you the outcomes you’re hoping for. 

With a marketing strategy you can:

• Find your target demographic.
• Create SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals.
• Keep your team on the same page.
• Be timely. 
• Make your brand more authentic.
• Ensure brand awareness.

No Alignment With Buyer Personas

If marketers don’t know who they’re creating content for, then it will be difficult to effectively communicate with them. No industry is the same, meaning that every audience that is being targeted has specific needs that should be met, and tones of voice and language choices that resonate with them. If you aim at nothing, you’re sure to hit it.

Another common sector of buyer persona problems is shooting for the wrong group of people. Trustmary found that 80% of content marketing is targeted at the wrong audience . Basically, a marketing team could have the best possible creative work to send out, and a great marketing plan to execute, but if it’s given to the wrong people, it won’t land properly. 

Showing ROI

Often, when a company experiences financial hardships, the first thing to be cut is marketing spend. The reason for this might be that proving its value can be difficult without specific tactics in place to do so. Hubspot’s State of Marketing Report found that demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of marketing activities to be the No. 1  roadblock for marketers . 

When done correctly, marketing does offer a boundless supply of benefits for companies. But if you can’t specify what the impacts of advertising efforts like market research, email campaigns or social media marketing are to upper management or clients, it’s going to be difficult to continue producing quality work. 

You have probably found yourself knee-deep in one of the situations above, but there are solutions to these problems. Continue reading to learn what you can do to help yourself and your clients get the results you’re hoping to achieve. 

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Effective Solutions for Bumps in the Road

For every marketing problem, there’s a solution. Some issues might take more effort than others, but all fixes require strategic thinking and research to fully understand where the problem stems and what the best steps forward are. Let’s look specifically at the challenges we listed above:

How to Fix Your Recruiting Practices

There are loads of ways to make your current employees happy as well as bring in new talent, but we’re just going to talk about a few. First, ensure your marketing team is heard and satisfied by adding feedback channels in the workplace. This could be a digital platform that collects remarks, or could be a physical version in your office. Either way, make sure your employees know their thoughts are valued by actually giving them the ability to share.

Word of mouth is everything nowadays. If your employees share that they’re happy on social media platforms like LinkedIn, or if they speak positively about your company with their friends and family, more people will be prone to apply to your open positions. And, you’ve hired your team for a reason — pay attention to who they think would be a good fit for the business. 

Creating a Clear Strategy

A set strategy is vital for consistent and effective marketing, but that doesn’t mean it’s a breeze to build. Let’s break down the process for creating a marketing strategy :

• Define Your Goals: Have your target objectives in mind before you start creating any advertising content. This can make sure your hard work is going to serve a specific purpose and will help you have an end goal to aim for. 
• Think of Your Audience: Understand and highlight who it is that you’re trying to reach. Every industry and type of business speaks to very unique people, meaning that your marketing initiatives must work for your target audience. Create buyer personas to help you visualize the set group of customers as you work.
• Build Brand Messaging: Since you’re speaking to your specific audience, ensure that they can recognize and pick out your brand from the competition using a set tone and voice. 
• Research Your Competitors: You should never ever copy what your competitors are doing — you bring a unique voice to the market. But, it’s smart to pay attention to what other brands are bringing to the table. 

Once you go through the process of creating your marketing strategy, you’re off to the races! 

Mending Your Buyer Personas

Finding a solution for your either lack of or incorrect target audience comes from having a clear marketing strategy, which we’ll get into more later. After you create your strategy for all marketing and advertising efforts, you should understand who it is that you’re trying to reach. With that knowledge, you can ask yourself the following questions before creating any content:

• Is my customer really interested in this?
• Will they actually care about this topic or information?
• What needs am I meeting or problems am I solving for my target audience?
• Is there a better way that I could connect with my audience?

If you’re confident in your answer, go ahead and interact with your buyers! And if you’re not? It may help to create buyer personas — model people who match your ideal customers. Give him or her a name, a detailed description and think about them every time you’re working on a component of your marketing. This can help you cut generalizations about who you’re creating content for, and be more specific and focused on the right group of people. Then you can create inbound marketing to attract these people and build more brand loyalty. 

Better Prove Your ROI

Your digital marketing efforts should be full circle, meaning that you should always end up with actual results and data that you can either determine successful or not. Without the power of marketing and sales working together, it’s really difficult to calculate ROI. Discover how much impact your content actually had on your target audience by looking at data points like impressions, qualified leads, web traffic, conversion rates and actual sales. After checking over the relevant information, compare those numbers to the specific goals that you’d made prior to creating the content. 

Did you meet your objectives like you’d hoped? We hope so! Either way, it’s time to put those numbers into a dashboard that can be easily displayed and read by your clients or upper management. By showing the impact of the advertising procedures you followed throughout the project timeline, you’re better able to discuss and prove the work was worth it and made a difference for your clients. 

Maybe none of these issues are things that you’ve experienced — so you think. But what if problems are occurring that you’re unaware of? If that’s the case, you could be losing money or potential customer partnerships without even knowing it. Want to learn more about how to know if you’re flying blindly into challenges? You’ve come to the right place. 

Tell-Tale Signs That You’re Experiencing Issues

We sincerely hope your marketing efforts are going well, but if they’re not, we want you to be aware. Here are some common red flags that you may be missing with your current advertising:

• Email Unsubscribes: This happens pretty normally, but not at alarmingly high rates. If you’ve had a drop-off in subscriber numbers, it’s probably because the content may be irrelevant or targeted toward the wrong people. This could also be a sign to check in on your email marketing platform to ensure your leads and contacts are being handled correctly. 
• Wrong Audience: Have people been clicking on your organic listings without converting? Maybe it’s time to reassess your messaging and brand personas. 
• Ad-Heavy: We’ll say it very loudly: Paid advertising isn’t bad! But, if you’re solely relying on it to be noticed by any members of your audience, then you should consider creating meaningful content that can draw more organic traffic to your brand. 
• Losing Followers: Similar to email subscribers, if you’re seeing a large dip in social media followers lately, it could be smart to reassess your social media marketing strategy. Although this is a common marketing problem, it can be more serious than some understand.

How Strategy Can Safeguard Your Marketing Practices

We’ve talked a lot about strategy, and that’s because it’s super important to find success with your brand. 

To ensure your marketing is strategic, you must create goals that your efforts can adhere to. And, to pinpoint objectives you need to do a bit of research. Here are the key elements of a brand strategy:

• Value Proposition: A simple statement that summarizes why a customer would choose your product or service over the competition.
• Key Brand Messaging: Set tone, language and values that articulate how your brand sounds and speaks to your audience.
• Target Customers: The specific audience that your product or service is aiming to please, as well as the competition that you’re battling.

Also described as the four Ps of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. Having these factors defined can help your team align to achieve specific goals, tie your efforts to business objectives, identity and test what resonates with your target audience and helps you stay up-to-date and capitalize on emerging technological and cultural trends. 

Although these marketing problems are common, they don’t have to be inevitable. Avoid the above issues (and any unlisted situations) and find success by efficiently recruiting, defining your strategy, targeting the right people and proving your ROI. 

Madelyn Gardner

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Madelyn Gardner is a content writer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Off the clock, she loves being outside, hiking, reading, baking and eating Mexican food — specifically burritos.

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3 Problem statement examples and steps to write your own

We’ve all encountered problems on the job. After all, that’s what a lot of work is about. Solving meaningful problems to help improve something. 

Developing a problem statement that provides a brief description of an issue you want to solve is an important early step in problem-solving .

It sounds deceptively simple. But creating an effective problem statement isn’t that easy, even for a genius like Albert Einstein. Given one hour to work on a problem, he’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes finding solutions. (Or so the story goes.)

Einstein was probably exaggerating to make a point. But considering his success in solving complex problems, we think he was on to something. 

As humans, we’re wired to jump past the problem and go directly to the solution stage. In emergencies, this behavior can be lifesaving, as in leaping out of the way of a speeding car. But when dealing with longer-range issues in the workplace, this can lead to bad decisions or half-baked solutions. 

That’s where problem statements come in handy. They help to meaningfully outline objectives to reach effective solutions. Knowing how to develop a great problem statement is also a valuable tool for honing your management skills .

But what exactly is a problem statement, when should you use one, and how do you go about writing one? In this article, we'll answer those questions and give you some tips for writing effective problem statements. Then you'll be ready to take on more challenges large and small.

What is a problem statement?

First, let’s start by defining a problem statement. 

A problem statement is a short, clear explanation of an issue or challenge that sums up what you want to change. It helps you, team members, and other stakeholders to focus on the problem, why it’s important, and who it impacts. 

A good problem statement should create awareness and stimulate creative thinking . It should not identify a solution or create a bias toward a specific strategy.

Taking time to work on a problem statement is a great way to short-circuit the tendency to rush to solutions. It helps to make sure you’re focusing on the right problem and have a well-informed understanding of the root causes. The process can also help you take a more proactive than reactive approach to problem-solving . This can help position you and your team to avoid getting stuck in constant fire-fighting mode. That way, you can take advantage of more growth opportunities.  

When to use a problem statement

The best time to create a problem statement is before you start thinking of solutions. If you catch yourself or your team rushing to the solution stage when you’re first discussing a problem, hit the brakes. Go back and work on the statement of the problem to make sure everyone understands and agrees on what the real problem is. 

Here are some common situations where writing problem statements might come in handy: 

• Writing an executive summary for a project proposal or research project
• Collaborating   on a cross-functional project with several team members
• Defining the customer issue that a proposed product or service aims to solve
• Using design thinking to improve user experience
• Tackling a problem that previous actions failed to solve 

How to identify a problem statement

Like the unseen body of an iceberg, the root cause of a specific problem isn’t always obvious. So when developing a problem statement, how do you go about identifying the true, underlying problem?

These two steps will help you uncover the root cause of a problem :

• Collect information from the research and previous experience with the problem
• Talk to multiple stakeholders who are impacted by the problem

People often perceive problems differently. Interviewing stakeholders will help you understand the problem from diverse points of view. It can also help you develop some case studies to illustrate the problem. 

Combining these insights with research data will help you identify root causes more accurately. In turn, this methodology will help you craft a problem statement that will lead to more viable solutions. 

What are problem statements used for?

You can use problem statements for a variety of purposes. For an organization, it might be solving customer and employee issues. For the government, it could be improving public health. For individuals, it can mean enhancing their own personal well-being . Generally, problem statements can be used to:

• Identify opportunities for improvement
• Focus on the right problems or issues to launch more successful initiatives – a common challenge in leadership
• Help you communicate a problem to others who need to be involved in finding a solution
• Serve as the basis for developing an action plan or goals that need to be accomplished to help solve the problem
• Stimulate thinking outside the box  and other types of creative brainstorming techniques

3 examples of problem statements

When you want to be sure you understand a concept or tool, it helps to see an example. There can also be some differences in opinion about what a problem statement should look like. For instance, some frameworks include a proposed solution as part of the problem statement. But if the goal is to stimulate fresh ideas, it’s better not to suggest a solution within the problem statement. 

In our experience, an effective problem statement is brief, preferably one sentence. It’s also specific and descriptive without being prescriptive. 

Here are three problem statement examples. While these examples represent three types of problems or goals, keep in mind that there can be many other types of problem statements.        

Example Problem Statement 1: The Status Quo Problem Statement

Example: 

The average customer service on-hold time for Example company exceeds five minutes during both its busy and slow seasons.

This can be used to describe a current pain point within an organization that may need to be addressed. Note that the statement specifies that the issue occurs during the company’s slow time as well as the busy season. This is helpful in performing the root cause analysis and determining how this problem can be solved. 

The average customer service on-hold time for Example company exceeds five minutes during both its busy and slow seasons. The company is currently understaffed and customer service representatives are overwhelmed.

Background:

Example company is facing a significant challenge in managing their customer service on-hold times. In the past, the company had been known for its efficient and timely customer service, but due to a combination of factors, including understaffing and increased customer demand, the on-hold times have exceeded five minutes consistently. This has resulted in frustration and dissatisfaction among customers, negatively impacting the company's reputation and customer loyalty.

Reducing the on-hold times for customer service callers is crucial for Example company. Prolonged waiting times have a detrimental effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty, leading to potential customer churn and loss of revenue. Additionally, the company's declining reputation in terms of customer service can have a lasting impact on its competitive position in the market. Addressing this problem is of utmost importance to improve customer experience and maintain a positive brand image.

Objectives:

The primary objective of this project is to reduce the on-hold times for customer service callers at Example company. The specific objectives include:

• Analyzing the current customer service workflow and identifying bottlenecks contributing to increased on-hold times.
• Assessing the staffing levels and resource allocation to determine the extent of understaffing and its impact on customer service.
• Developing strategies and implementing measures to optimize the customer service workflow and reduce on-hold times.
• Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the implemented measures through key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average on-hold time, customer satisfaction ratings, and customer feedback.
• Establishing a sustainable approach to maintain reduced on-hold times, taking into account both busy and slow seasons, through proper resource planning, training, and process improvements.

Example Problem Statement 2: The Destination Problem Statement

Leaders at Example company want to increase net revenue for its premium product line of widgets by 5% for the next fiscal year. 

This approach can be used to describe where an organization wants to be in the future. This type of problem statement is useful for launching initiatives to help an organization achieve its desired state. 

Like creating SMART goals , you want to be as specific as possible. Note that the statement specifies “net revenue” instead of “gross revenue." This will help keep options open for potential actions. It also makes it clear that merely increasing sales is not an acceptable solution if higher marketing costs offset the net gains. 

Leaders at Example company aim to increase net revenue for its premium product line of widgets by 5% for the next fiscal year. However, the company currently lacks the necessary teams to tackle this objective effectively. To achieve this growth target, the company needs to expand its marketing and PR teams, as well as its product development teams, to prepare for scaling. 

Example company faces the challenge of generating a 5% increase in net revenue for its premium product line of widgets in the upcoming fiscal year. Currently, the company lacks the required workforce to drive this growth. Without adequate staff in the marketing, PR, and product development departments, the company's ability to effectively promote, position, and innovate its premium product line will be hindered. To achieve this kind of growth, it is essential that Example company expands teams, enhances capabilities, and strategically taps into the existing pool of loyal customers.

Increasing net revenue for the premium product line is crucial for Example company's overall business success. Failure to achieve the targeted growth rate can lead to missed revenue opportunities and stagnation in the market. By expanding the marketing and PR teams, Example company can strengthen its brand presence, effectively communicate the value proposition of its premium product line, and attract new customers.

Additionally, expanding the product development teams will enable the company to introduce new features and innovations, further enticing existing and potential customers. Therefore, addressing the workforce shortage and investing in the necessary resources are vital for achieving the revenue growth objective.

The primary objective of this project is to increase net revenue for Example company's premium product line of widgets by 5% in the next fiscal year. The specific objectives include:

• Assessing the current workforce and identifying the gaps in the marketing, PR, and product development teams.
• Expanding the marketing and PR teams by hiring skilled professionals who can effectively promote the premium product line and engage with the target audience.
• Strengthening the product development teams by recruiting qualified individuals who can drive innovation, enhance product features, and meet customer demands.
• Developing a comprehensive marketing and PR strategy to effectively communicate the value proposition of the premium product line and attract new customers.
• Leveraging the existing base of loyal customers to increase repeat purchases, referrals, and brand advocacy.
• Allocating sufficient resources, both time and manpower, to support the expansion and scaling efforts required to achieve the ambitious revenue growth target.
• Monitoring and analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) such as net revenue, customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer satisfaction to measure the success of the growth initiatives.
• Establishing a sustainable plan to maintain the increased revenue growth beyond the next fiscal year by implementing strategies for continuous improvement and adaptation to market dynamics.

Example Problem Statement 3 The Stakeholder Problem Statement

In the last three quarterly employee engagement surveys , less than 30% of employees at Eample company stated that they feel valued by the company. This represents a 20% decline compared to the same period in the year prior. 

This strategy can be used to describe how a specific stakeholder group views the organization. It can be useful for exploring issues and potential solutions that impact specific groups of people. 

Note the statement makes it clear that the issue has been present in multiple surveys and it's significantly worse than the previous year. When researching root causes, the HR team will want to zero in on factors that changed since the previous year.

In the last three quarterly employee engagement surveys, less than 30% of employees at the Example company stated that they feel valued by the company. This indicates a significant decline of 20% compared to the same period in the previous year.

The company aspires to reduce this percentage further to under 10%. However, achieving this goal would require filling specialized roles and implementing substantial cultural changes within the organization.

Example company is facing a pressing issue regarding employee engagement and perceived value within the company. Over the past year, there has been a notable decline in the percentage of employees who feel valued. This decline is evident in the results of the quarterly employee engagement surveys, which consistently show less than 30% of employees reporting a sense of value by the company.

This decline of 20% compared to the previous year's data signifies a concerning trend. To address this problem effectively, Example company needs to undertake significant measures that go beyond superficial changes and necessitate filling specialized roles and transforming the company culture.

Employee engagement and a sense of value are crucial for organizational success. When employees feel valued, they tend to be more productive, committed, and motivated. Conversely, a lack of perceived value can lead to decreased morale, increased turnover rates, and diminished overall performance.

By addressing the decline in employees feeling valued, Example company can improve employee satisfaction, retention, and ultimately, overall productivity. Achieving the desired reduction to under 10% is essential to restore a positive work environment and build a culture of appreciation and respect.

The primary objective of this project is to increase the percentage of employees who feel valued by Example company, aiming to reduce it to under 10%. The specific objectives include:

• Conducting a comprehensive analysis of the factors contributing to the decline in employees feeling valued, including organizational policies, communication practices, leadership styles, and cultural norms.
• Identifying and filling specialized roles, such as employee engagement specialists or culture change agents, who can provide expertise and guidance in fostering a culture of value and appreciation.
• Developing a holistic employee engagement strategy that encompasses various initiatives, including training programs, recognition programs, feedback mechanisms, and communication channels, to enhance employee value perception.
• Implementing cultural changes within the organization that align with the values of appreciation, respect, and recognition, while fostering an environment where employees feel valued.
• Communicating the importance of employee value and engagement throughout all levels of the organization, including leadership teams, managers, and supervisors, to ensure consistent messaging and support.
• Monitoring progress through regular employee surveys, feedback sessions, and key performance indicators (KPIs) related to employee satisfaction, turnover rates, and overall engagement levels.
• Providing ongoing support, resources, and training to managers and supervisors to enable them to effectively recognize and appreciate their teams and foster a culture of value within their respective departments.
• Establishing a sustainable framework for maintaining high employee value perception in the long term, including regular evaluation and adaptation of employee engagement initiatives to address evolving needs and expectations.

What are the 5 components of a problem statement?

In developing a problem statement, it helps to think like a journalist by focusing on the five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why or how. Keep in mind that every statement may not explicitly include each component. But asking these questions is a good way to make sure you’re covering the key elements:

• Who: Who are the stakeholders that are affected by the problem?
• What: What is the current state, desired state, or unmet need? 
• When: When is the issue occurring or what is the timeframe involved?
• Where: Where is the problem occurring? For example, is it in a specific department, location, or region?
• Why: Why is this important or worth solving? How is the problem impacting your customers, employees, other stakeholders, or the organization? What is the magnitude of the problem? How large is the gap between the current and desired state? 

How do you write a problem statement?

There are many frameworks designed to help people write a problem statement. One example is outlined in the book, The Conclusion Trap: Four Steps to Better Decisions, ” by Daniel Markovitz. A faculty member at the Lean Enterprise Institute, the author uses many case studies from his work as a business consultant.

To simplify the process, we’ve broken it down into three steps:

1. Gather data and observe

Use data from research and reports, as well as facts from direct observation to answer the five Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. 

Whenever possible, get out in the field and talk directly with stakeholders impacted by the problem. Get a firsthand look at the work environment and equipment. This may mean spending time on the production floor asking employees questions about their work and challenges. Or taking customer service calls to learn more about customer pain points and problems your employees may be grappling with.    

2. Frame the problem properly  

A well-framed problem will help you avoid cognitive bias and open avenues for discussion. It will also encourage the exploration of more options.

A good way to test a problem statement for bias is to ask questions like these:

3. Keep asking why (and check in on the progress)

When it comes to problem-solving, stay curious. Lean on your growth mindset to keep asking why — and check in on the progress. 

Asking why until you’re satisfied that you’ve uncovered the root cause of the problem will help you avoid ineffective band-aid solutions.

What to avoid when writing a problem statement

When crafting a problem statement, it's essential to communicate the issue clearly and effectively. A well-formulated problem statement sets the stage for understanding and addressing the challenge at hand. However, there are common pitfalls that can undermine its clarity and purpose. Here's what you should avoid:

• Vagueness : Be specific about the problem and its context.
• Complexity : Keep the language simple and direct.
• Overgeneralization : Avoid broad statements that don’t address specific issues.
• Assumptions : Don’t presume solutions or causes without evidence.
• Jargon : Use clear, accessible language that can be understood by all stakeholders.

Refining your problem statements

When solving any sort of problem, there’s likely a slew of questions that might arise for you. In order to holistically understand the root cause of the problem at hand, your workforce needs to stay curious. 

An effective problem statement creates the space you and your team need to explore, gain insight, and get buy-in before taking action.

If you have embarked on a proposed solution, it’s also important to understand that solutions are malleable. There may be no single best solution. Solutions can change and adapt as external factors change, too. It’s more important than ever that organizations stay agile . This means that interactive check-ins are critical to solving tough problems. By keeping a good pulse on your course of action, you’ll be better equipped to pivot when the time comes to change. 

BetterUp can help. With access to virtual coaching , your people can get personalized support to help solve tough problems of the future.

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Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

How to get inspired: 15 ideas to help you reach your potential

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9 Common Marketing Problems And How To Solve Them

Every marketing strategy is unique, just like each company is unique. But, regardless of the industry or company size, I hear the same few complaints over and over again from prospective clients.

We’re not getting enough traffic.

Our competitors are killing us.

We don’t have enough money for marketing.

Sound familiar? If you sell something, chances are you’ve run into at least one of the problems in this post.

I’m taking some of the most common challenges I help clients tackle and sharing the very best resources I know of to help you overcome them. Some are my own, some of from other experts in the field, but all of them will help you better understand the problem you’re having and what you might be able to do right now to solve it.

Problem #1: You’re Not Getting Enough Website Traffic

You can’t sell anything if you don’t have traffic, be it to your website or your brick-and-mortar store. It’s the most common complaint from new brands, but believe it or not it’s also a fairly frequent problem among established brands that are having trouble keeping up with the pace of technology.

Before you can do anything about your sales pipeline, you’ve gotta get some customers in it.

Website traffic tool suite Sumo has an awesome series of blog posts designed to help you take your website from 0 to 10,000 visitors per month. If you haven’t yet reached that milestone, these posts are an awesome place to start. Once you’ve crossed the 10K a month threshold, it gets a lot easier from there.

The posts are great because each writer shares his or her own formula for getting to 10K monthly visits, and none of them are alike. Here are three of my favorites from the series:

Growing a Site from 0 to 10k Visitors a Month: Sarah Peterson Edition

Sarah’s strategy centers around creating be-all, end-all  content on your topic, kind of like what I am to do on this blog.

How To Grow Blog Traffic From 0 to 10k Visitors: Nat Eliason Edition

Nat’s strategy is built around becoming an online resource about your field, then creating a guest-posting strategy to gain eyeballs based on your expertise.

Growing a Site from 0 to 10k Visitors in a Month: Noah Kagan Edition

Entrepreneurial powerhouse Noah Kagan and his apprentice Julien grow a brand spanking new website to 10K monthly visits in a matter of months using networking, giveaways and interviews.

Problem #2: You’re Getting Traffic, But No One’s Buying

The saying goes “If you build it, they will come.” But no one ever promised they would buy!

This has to be hands-down one of the most frustrating problems in business, but it happens all the time. The interest is there, but the inclination to buy? Zilch.

How To Reduce 14 Friction Points In Your Checkout Process

It could be that you’re making your would-be customer jump through too many hoops before they finally hit the ‘Submit Order’ button. In this post, PCA Predict breaks down the top causes of friction in the checkout process—many of which you probably hadn’t thought of—and shows you how to fix them.

The Complete Guide To A/B Testing

Sometimes, all it takes is a few small tweaks to make a world of difference in your conversion rate. You’ll never know if you don’t tweak and test. This exhaustive guide from Visual Website Optimizer shows you how to run A/B tests (and what elements to test) to identify and improve your traffic-to-sales conversions.

Problem #3: There’s Too Much Competition

Very rarely is a business lucky enough to be the only one in its field. At a minimum, you’ll have at least a few strong competitors, and you might have a few dozen.

Competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though; it proves there’s a market for what you sell and forces you to innovate. It’s up to you to set yourself apart with your marketing.

The Riches are in the Niches: Why Appealing to Everybody, Means You’re Really Appealing to Nobody

The best way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to think smaller. Yes, really.

When you’re trying to sell to everyone , your marketing message won’t be relatable to anyone . Your customer is an individual, and speaking to their needs in a way your competitor can’t is a surefire way to win their business. Mish Slade does a great job illustrating this in the above article on Beliyf.

Useful Value Proposition Examples (and How to Create a Good One)

When I ask our clients how they’re different from their competition, they never say “we’re actually not different at all.” Instead, they rattle off a laundry list of things that make them unique, whether it’s their level of service, their personalization, or a materially superior product.

YOU know what makes you unique. Now show this to your target customer with a laser-focused value proposition. ConversionXL has an excellent guide on engineering your value proposition with actual examples of great (and not-so-great) ones from name brands.

Problem #4: You’re Attracting the Wrong Customer

When you’re talking to potential buyers, do you run into the same roadblocks over and over again? Maybe you keep coming across would-be customers that are just a little too young, a little too thrifty, a little too conservative, a little too whatever to actually buy from you. You’re attracting the wrong type of person.

How To Build Buyer Personas For Better Marketing

All those people coming to your website or walking in your door do you no good if they don’t need what you’re selling. Narrowing down your buyer personas before you ever hang that ‘Open for Business’ sign is a key component for converting the right types of people into paying customers. Shopify has an awesomely thorough guide with helpful questions to ask as you’re building your ideal buyer persona.

7 Steps to Convert Your Target Buyers With Content Offers

Once you’ve zeroed in on your buyer personas, you must create content offers that speak directly to their pain points. Content offers act as a fishing line to reel in warm leads, but they also act as a barrier to keep the wrong leads out.

The above guide from Spark Reaction takes you step-by-step through creating targeted content offers to narrow down the right customer.

Problem #5: People Seem Interested, But They’re Not Ready to Buy

You’re attracting the traffic, and they’re the right people, but when it’s time to swipe the credit card they’re just not ready to buy. It’s time to pay closer attention to your buyer’s journey: the process every customer goes through before making a purchase.

How to Create Content for Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey

The buyer’s journey consists of three phases: Awareness, when the customer is gathering information about their problem; Consideration, when the customer is weighing options for what they might buy; and Decision, when they’re ready to pull the trigger on a purchase.

The guide above from the sales funnel experts at Hubspot explains how to create content for buyers at every phase in this journey, not just the decision phase. When you do this, you’ll have a strategy in place to manage and follow-up with those individuals who are interested, but not ready to buy just yet.

Problem #6: People Always Want A Discount

There are bargain shoppers and tire kickers in every industry. It’s not just you who’s dealing with them. The better question is why are you dealing with them?

Is it because you’re positioning yourself as a “bargain” choice? Or maybe your product just doesn’t seem worthy of the price to your customers. You’re not doing a good enough job of conveying its value.

3 Ways To Charge More for Your Products and Services

What’s the difference between a BMW 5 Series and a Toyota Camry? Well, when it comes to function, not much. But there’s a nearly 100% price difference between the two automobiles. As the guys at Crazyegg explain in the article above, the power of re-framing your products and services can’t be overstated.

6 Critical Ways to Show Value to Your Customer

You know your product is valuable, but you’re a bit biased. Are you proving that value to your customer?

From demonstrating outcomes to providing ongoing consumer education, the 6 value-building strategies outlined in this post will help you clearly demonstrate exactly what your customer is getting for his money—and why it’s so worthwhile.

Problem #7: You Don’t Know If Your Marketing Efforts Are Working

You’re throwing all this money into your marketing efforts, but is it paying off? If you’re not measuring your efforts and their results, you might as well take that pile of cash and set it on fire. Without good data, you can’t make informed decisions about your marketing.

3 Site Metrics You Absolutely Must Track

In this post, I break marketing data down into three baseline metrics: goals, traffic sources and search queries. If you’re just getting started with tracking and measuring your marketing campaigns, these three metrics are a great place to start.

A Simple Plan for Measuring the Marketing Effectiveness of Content

Okay, so tracking things like sales is pretty easy. But what about things that aren’t so cut and dry, like your content efforts? How do you determine the effectiveness of, say, a blog post or a social media campaign? Content Marketing Institute has an easy formula and worksheet for it in the post above.

Problem #8: You Don’t Have A Big Enough Marketing Budget

Feel like you need a bigger budget to “really” do marketing? You and everybody else, friend!

More dollars for marketing are always nice, but honestly, sometimes having a small budget is a good thing because it forces you to get creative and only focus on tactics that prove results.

Save Time and Double Your ROI: A Guide to Applying the 80/20 Rule to Your Marketing

It’s well-documented that in most results-driven situations, 20% of the efforts breed 80% of the results. It’s known as the Pareto Principle, and lucky for us, it also applies to marketing. In this insightful Quicksprout article, Neil Patel explains how to find and take advantage of that magic 20% in our marketing efforts.

Problem #9: You Need More Exposure

Maybe you’ve seen your competitors getting shoutouts from sites like Forbes or getting featured in the local newspaper. You want that kind of exposure, but you have no idea how they got it or maybe you think they just got lucky.

Get Major Media Coverage

Getting exposure and press coverage is no accident. Sure, sometimes you just get lucky, but most of the time it results from a planned and strategic approach to working with media. In my self-guided online course, I show you the exact steps I take to get media coverage for my clients, from the local news all the way up to The Wall Street Journal.

Get my latest marketing and copywriting tips delivered to your inbox as soon as they’re posted! Subscribe below and never miss and update.

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More From Forbes

Is your marketing solving the right problems.

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Lee Roth, North American Director,  BeenThereDoneThat

The challenges for marketers today can be overwhelming. Beyond the usual issues of competition, spending and market share, at this time we have to navigate a cultural climate with ever-expanding trapdoors, from Covid-19 to a recession to political division. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Where there is seismic change, there is opportunity, but success lies in starting at the very beginning, which as we all know is a very good place to start.

And the beginning is identifying and defining the right problems to solve.

One of history’s smartest thinkers, Albert Einstein, is often quoted as having said, “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.”

As with most things Einstein said, he made problem solving seem simple, but it’s important to put in place the right problem definition process in order to be good at it.

While selling your product might not be as important as saving the planet (but don’t underestimate the power of business to do so), when we define problems properly, we are reframing them so that we can see the opportunities contained within them that previously might have been hidden.

And as Einstein reveals in his quote, when we define them properly, we get to great solutions that much quicker, which can save us money and energy. This is the essence of what makes a great brief. Defining, identifying and framing problems in the right way enables other people to see the opportunities and get excited about solving them.

5 ChatGPT Prompts To Build Your Personal Brand (As A Coach In 2024)

The best hybrid mattresses—we tested over 100 beds, what are the ‘when gen-z writes the marketing script’ memes about.

And here’s why I think that we, as marketers, need to foster this art of problem definition. Among the 100 senior marketers polled last year for a report we commissioned, only 18% agreed that their teams are good at writing concise briefs. Poorly written briefs in turn often lead to confusion, misery and the same old solutions that don’t even come close to the problems we really should be solving.

But all is not lost. Here are some ways to ensure that problem definition sits at the heart of your marketing:

Resist the urge to race to solutions.

Identifying and defining problems require discipline and an approach designed to stop you and your team from falling into the trap of coming up with solutions first and retrofitting a problem.

Use a framework for the identification of problems, not the generation of solutions. They are hugely different. Create the space and time to investigate properly; you can’t rush it.

Emphasize the importance of identifying the problem and get the important people in the room. A quick way to do this is to ask yourself who can say no to the solution, and make sure they are there.

Inject objectivity into the process through outside help and diverse thinking.

Shift your investment to understanding the broader context, rather than validating solutions.

Testing has always been a route to making sure that the idea resonates with the consumer. But testing executions is only justifying the solution. More marketers are understanding that they need to tap into a broader understanding of the cultural landscape to identify the right problems to stay relevant in consumers’ lives. As one senior marketer told us in our poll, “We’re making a big effort to spend more time and money on empathy work and really understanding consumer tensions and consumer needs rather than validating things. ... That’s one of the changes that I’m seeing and for me that’s the right approach.”

Another said, “For me it keeps coming back to our ability to know if we are focusing on solving real people’s problems.”

The most essential part of your problem definition process is making sure that what you are trying to solve is an actual consumer problem. Solving consumer problems drives growth; solving internal business problems tends to save money.

Once you’ve identified the problem, open your mind to the solution.

Adopt a growth mindset:

• Don’t allow muscle memory to snap you back into an old solution set.

• Go wide and use a diverse set of minds that are focused less on agenda   and more on creativity to bring you a richness of solutions, but stay laser-focused on the problem you are trying to solve.

• Remember that success lies not in the subjective world of “Do I like it?” or “Will the boss like it?” but in the objective world of “Will this solve the problem my consumer has in a way that will drive value for both of us?”

As Einstein said, once you’ve identified the problem, solving it should be simple, really. 

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Problem-solving skills.

An effective problem-solver uses many skills to devise and implement solutions including:

Creative skills

Research skills, team-working skills.

• Decision-making skills, and

Risk-taking skills

Creative skills allow big and boundless thinking. They involve the consideration and analysis of ideas, concepts, and solutions that no one else has considered before. Thinking creatively requires you to set aside any biases or assumptions that you may hold and to take a different look at things. By approaching a problem with an open mind, you allow yourself the chance to think creatively. Often, a problem may seem to be insurmountable and it is only by practicing creativity and innovation that a workable solution can be found. Considering a problem from different viewpoints and being open to a change in perspective is key.

For example, the US Air Force Research Laboratory required an update for their supercomputer but the cost was well over their budget. So, by thinking creatively and looking for alternative solutions, they realized that they could purchase 300 PlayStation 3s that would fulfil their computing needs instead. To quote their creative decision: “The processors in the Sony PlayStation 3 are the only brand on the market that utilizes the specific cell processor characteristics needed for this program at an acceptable cost.”

Another example of creative problem-solving is from the inventor and founder of Dyson® vacuum cleaners, James Dyson. While his competitors were focused on how to design a better filter for the paper bags in their vacuum cleaners, he came to the realization that he had to approach the problem from a more creative direction. The result was that he created a ‘cyclone’ vacuum cleaner which could separate dust from air, and brought the world's first bagless vacuum cleaner to the market.

Another important set of skills for problem solving are research skills . How can you find out what you don’t know? By doing research.

Being able to demonstrate the following competencies is key to ensuring your research is effective:

• Attention to detail
• Critical thinking
• Planning and scheduling
• Technical skills
• Statistical and Graphical Analysis of Data, and
• Interviewing

Because data is so easily accessible these days, it is important to check that the data you are relying on has come from a trusted source.

Team-working skills are also very useful when it comes to problem solving. If you lead a team, you can help your team or colleagues to solve problems in many ways.

Create easy wins to begin with. Pick the ‘low-hanging fruit’ for the team to practice upon, that is, the tasks that are easiest to achieve, or the problems that are easiest to solve. Resist the temptation to offer a solution to hurry the process along; act as a facilitator instead and guide your team toward the answers. The greatest impact can come from giving the accountability of owning both the solution and the implementation of the solution, to the team. By delegating the problem, you reinforce your confidence and trust in the work of the team.

You can also use the 'framing effect'. The ‘framing effect’ is a cognitive bias, whereby people decide on options based on whether the options are presented with positive or negative connotations; for example, as a loss or as a gain. Show your team or colleagues how to practice the skill of framing an issue from differing perspectives, for example, positive, negative, or neutral, and how to devise specific solutions for each frame.

Another method is to remove yourself from the team problem-solving equation. Consider the unintentional influence you may have that might lead to potential biasing of the group with your views. In addition, be understanding and willing to support the team by working across the organization to acquire resources and budgets.

Avoid getting angry at a failure by the team as this is almost always destructive. Instead, instruct the team to take a step back and pause to consider the situation and analyze what did and did not work. Give them time to consider how to respond, learn, and move on.

Be sure to avoid group-think by drawing in individuals with areas of expertise and knowledge not currently held by the team. A common pitfall of group-think is that the team narrowly focuses on their own held-knowledge and plays down any outside or differing viewpoints, limiting the possibility of the most effective solution as an outcome.

Decision-making skills

Decision-making skills are another key component of problem solving. According to the economist Evan Davis, “If you are not making mistakes, you are not trying hard.” This is true of many people, because due to their lack of experience, confidence, or authority, they resist the taking and making of decisions. The more decisions you make, the stronger your decision-making skills become. As long as you learn from your decisions and mistakes, then the more mistakes you make, the better it is for your decision-making ability!

Having the ability to take risks is an important skill for effective problem solving. It is usually better to take determined risks rather than undetermined risks. Being able to distinguish between the two takes experience, skill, and knowledge.

An undetermined risk is a risk that is taken without performing due diligence or accounting for possible negative outcomes; that is, you may have found a positive solution, but you don’t know what the final cost will be or what the ‘knock-on’ effects are.

A determined risk requires detailed research, and while you may not actually achieve success, you know that enough research has been carried out to ensure that there is a high likelihood of success.

Many people become risk-averse from building pros and cons into every single decision they make. We tend to avoid taking risks for the following reasons:

• A fear of failure
• A fear of the inflated consequences of failure, and
• A fear of handling the consequences of risk

However, a certain amount of risk-taking is necessary for every new solution, particularly in the beginning. Aiming to take calculated and well-informed risks only is a healthy and effective approach to problem solving.

Cathal Melinn and Kevin Reid

Cathal Melinn is Digital Marketing Manager at Digital Marketing Institute.

• 13 years’ experience in search and display
• Worked at Yahoo! Search in 2005 as a Senior Search Strategist for the UK Financial Services vertical
• Moved to the world of agency in 2010 as Head of Search and Online Media for five years 
• Currently working at the Digital Marketing Institute as a Digital Marketing Manager
• Previous clients include Apple, Vodafone, Expedia, Virgin, Universal Music Group, Amazon, Compare the Market, and HSBC

Kevin Reid is CEO of Personal Skills Training, Senior Coach at Kevin J Reid Coaching, Co-founder and Communications Director of The Counsel.ie, and Lead Collaborator of LeitrimMade.com.

• A consummate and skillful international communications trainer, facilitator, and coach
• Has over 15 years of learning development experience with individuals, teams, and entire organizations
• Has facilitated communications workshops and training across numerous sectors in Ireland, the UK, Europe, America, and Africa

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

• Compare techniques for enhancing creative thinking skills.
• Analyse strategies to improve problem-solving skills in the workplace  

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The following pieces of content from the Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library have been chosen to offer additional material that you might find interesting or insightful.

You can find more information and content like this on the  Digital Marketing Institute's Membership Library

• Article: Setting Yourself Apart With ‘Soft Skills’
• Article: Delight Your Audience: How to Create Content That Excites and Entertains
• Case Study: LEGO, The Building Blocks of a Modern-Day Superbrand
• Webinar: Brand Storytelling - Should Digital Marketers Lead with the Heart or the Head?

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ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE

Creativity Skills

Creative skills aren’t just for artists and designers! Everyone can learn to be more creative. In fact, the ability to think creatively is an invaluable skill in today’s workplace.

With the help of Cathal Melinn, you will learn how to enhance your creative thinking skills – which should help you generate new ideas, find innovative solutions to problems, and develop new products and services. You will also learn how to remove barriers to creativity and the importance of persevering when your ideas fail.

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What Are Problem-Solving Skills? Definition and Examples

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Forage puts students first. Our blog articles are written independently by our editorial team. They have not been paid for or sponsored by our partners. See our full  editorial guidelines .

Why do employers hire employees? To help them solve problems. Whether you’re a financial analyst deciding where to invest your firm’s money, or a marketer trying to figure out which channel to direct your efforts, companies hire people to help them find solutions. Problem-solving is an essential and marketable soft skill in the workplace. 

So, how can you improve your problem-solving and show employers you have this valuable skill? In this guide, we’ll cover:

Problem-Solving Skills Definition

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Problem-solving skills are the ability to identify problems, brainstorm and analyze answers, and implement the best solutions. An employee with good problem-solving skills is both a self-starter and a collaborative teammate; they are proactive in understanding the root of a problem and work with others to consider a wide range of solutions before deciding how to move forward. 

Examples of using problem-solving skills in the workplace include:

• Researching patterns to understand why revenue decreased last quarter
• Experimenting with a new marketing channel to increase website sign-ups
• Brainstorming content types to share with potential customers
• Testing calls to action to see which ones drive the most product sales
• Implementing a new workflow to automate a team process and increase productivity

Problem-solving skills are the most sought-after soft skill of 2022. In fact, 86% of employers look for problem-solving skills on student resumes, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2022 survey . 

It’s unsurprising why employers are looking for this skill: companies will always need people to help them find solutions to their problems. Someone proactive and successful at problem-solving is valuable to any team.

“Employers are looking for employees who can make decisions independently, especially with the prevalence of remote/hybrid work and the need to communicate asynchronously,” Eric Mochnacz, senior HR consultant at Red Clover, says. “Employers want to see individuals who can make well-informed decisions that mitigate risk, and they can do so without suffering from analysis paralysis.”

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Problem-solving includes three main parts: identifying the problem, analyzing possible solutions, and deciding on the best course of action.

>>MORE: Discover the right career for you based on your skills with a career aptitude test .

Research is the first step of problem-solving because it helps you understand the context of a problem. Researching a problem enables you to learn why the problem is happening. For example, is revenue down because of a new sales tactic? Or because of seasonality? Is there a problem with who the sales team is reaching out to? 

Research broadens your scope to all possible reasons why the problem could be happening. Then once you figure it out, it helps you narrow your scope to start solving it. 

Analysis is the next step of problem-solving. Now that you’ve identified the problem, analytical skills help you look at what potential solutions there might be.

“The goal of analysis isn’t to solve a problem, actually — it’s to better understand it because that’s where the real solution will be found,” Gretchen Skalka, owner of Career Insights Consulting, says. “Looking at a problem through the lens of impartiality is the only way to get a true understanding of it from all angles.”

Decision-Making

Once you’ve figured out where the problem is coming from and what solutions are, it’s time to decide on the best way to go forth. Decision-making skills help you determine what resources are available, what a feasible action plan entails, and what solution is likely to lead to success.

On a Resume

Employers looking for problem-solving skills might include the word “problem-solving” or other synonyms like “ critical thinking ” or “analytical skills” in the job description.

“I would add ‘buzzwords’ you can find from the job descriptions or LinkedIn endorsements section to filter into your resume to comply with the ATS,” Matthew Warzel, CPRW resume writer, advises. Warzel recommends including these skills on your resume but warns to “leave the soft skills as adjectives in the summary section. That is the only place soft skills should be mentioned.”

On the other hand, you can list hard skills separately in a skills section on your resume .

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In a Cover Letter or an Interview

Explaining your problem-solving skills in an interview can seem daunting. You’re required to expand on your process — how you identified a problem, analyzed potential solutions, and made a choice. As long as you can explain your approach, it’s okay if that solution didn’t come from a professional work experience.

“Young professionals shortchange themselves by thinking only paid-for solutions matter to employers,” Skalka says. “People at the genesis of their careers don’t have a wealth of professional experience to pull from, but they do have relevant experience to share.”

Aaron Case, career counselor and CPRW at Resume Genius, agrees and encourages early professionals to share this skill. “If you don’t have any relevant work experience yet, you can still highlight your problem-solving skills in your cover letter,” he says. “Just showcase examples of problems you solved while completing your degree, working at internships, or volunteering. You can even pull examples from completely unrelated part-time jobs, as long as you make it clear how your problem-solving ability transfers to your new line of work.”

Learn How to Identify Problems

Problem-solving doesn’t just require finding solutions to problems that are already there. It’s also about being proactive when something isn’t working as you hoped it would. Practice questioning and getting curious about processes and activities in your everyday life. What could you improve? What would you do if you had more resources for this process? If you had fewer? Challenge yourself to challenge the world around you.

Think Digitally

“Employers in the modern workplace value digital problem-solving skills, like being able to find a technology solution to a traditional issue,” Case says. “For example, when I first started working as a marketing writer, my department didn’t have the budget to hire a professional voice actor for marketing video voiceovers. But I found a perfect solution to the problem with an AI voiceover service that cost a fraction of the price of an actor.”

Being comfortable with new technology — even ones you haven’t used before — is a valuable skill in an increasingly hybrid and remote world. Don’t be afraid to research new and innovative technologies to help automate processes or find a more efficient technological solution.

Collaborate

Problem-solving isn’t done in a silo, and it shouldn’t be. Use your collaboration skills to gather multiple perspectives, help eliminate bias, and listen to alternative solutions. Ask others where they think the problem is coming from and what solutions would help them with your workflow. From there, try to compromise on a solution that can benefit everyone.

If we’ve learned anything from the past few years, it’s that the world of work is constantly changing — which means it’s crucial to know how to adapt . Be comfortable narrowing down a solution, then changing your direction when a colleague provides a new piece of information. Challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone, whether with your personal routine or trying a new system at work.

Put Yourself in the Middle of Tough Moments

Just like adapting requires you to challenge your routine and tradition, good problem-solving requires you to put yourself in challenging situations — especially ones where you don’t have relevant experience or expertise to find a solution. Because you won’t know how to tackle the problem, you’ll learn new problem-solving skills and how to navigate new challenges. Ask your manager or a peer if you can help them work on a complicated problem, and be proactive about asking them questions along the way.

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Step 1 of 3

Companies always need people to help them find solutions — especially proactive employees who have practical analytical skills and can collaborate to decide the best way to move forward. Whether or not you have experience solving problems in a professional workplace, illustrate your problem-solving skills by describing your research, analysis, and decision-making process — and make it clear that you’re the solution to the employer’s current problems. 

Image Credit: Christina Morillo / Pexels 

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8 Ways to Solve Prospects' Problems Through Your Marketing

Updated: August 26, 2017

Published: May 10, 2012

You're in business because you provide solutions. You've got answers. You're the (wo)man with the plan. Let's take a look at some of our customers, for example. AmeriFirst Home Mortgage helps home buyers find the right mortgage for them. In The News helps businesses memorialize their accomplishments with custom lamination and engraving. HubSpot helps marketers get an end-to-end view of their marketing activities to determine which channels provide the most ROI.

Notice how none of those explanations of what each company provides focused on the specific product or service? That's because the product or service isn't what makes a lead want to be your customer -- it's a solution to their problem that people care about. Your business is successful because it provides some solution, but if your campaigns seem to be flailing a bit, it may be because you haven't applied that problem-solving principle to your marketing.

Not yet, anyway. This post will give you plenty of ideas to implement that will make your marketing more solution-oriented. That way, your prospects see you as a helpful problem solver they actually like and trust ... not just a peddler of your product or service!

How to Inject Problem Solving Into Your Marketing

1) Create how-to blog content. As most inbound marketers know, success starts with content; so begin by writing blog posts that solve peoples' problems! If you'll allow me to get meta for a minute, this very blog post about how to be a problem solver is, well, solving a problem. People reading this presumably want to know how to inject more problem solving into their marketing, and this post is providing solutions to that problem. When writing your how-to blog content, focus on providing actionable advice. There's already a ton of content out there that says a lot without really saying anything at all. But you want your content to give you credibility and authority ; you can do that by making sure your reader walks away from the blog post with at least one thing he or she can do to be better.

2) Create lead gen offers that make people's lives easier. Helpful content doesn't end with blog posts, nor does successful marketing. You need to convert that blog traffic into leads, and if you've written some amazing content, your readers will probably want to learn more from you. Create lead gen content that will help your readers be more successful -- at work, at home, whatever it is your customers need. For example, HubSpot has released tons of ebooks that show marketers how to do something, like set up their Facebook page timeline , for instance. Or perhaps you'd like to create some templates for your audience, like we did with our downloadable leads waterfall graph that we encourage all marketers to use . If you're looking for some inspiration, we've written an entire guide to creating lead gen offers quickly .

3) Source problems to feed your content. I'm asking you to create all this content, but where will the topics come from? You should be speaking with the people on the front lines of your business on a daily basis -- employees working in Services, Support, and Sales hear questions from prospects and customers during every conversation. Ask all employees to document these questions and problems and send them your way to feed your solution-oriented content. And if any of them fancy themselves a writer, they can document their answers, too, for a guest spot on your blog! ( Tip: As you write this content, be sure to keep other departments in the know. Sales, Services, and Support should be equipped with an arsenal of content they can send to their prospects and customers that answers their questions. This will not only establish trust and authority between employees and your prospects and customers, but for Sales, it could shorten the buying cycle, too.)

4) Leverage the brainpower of your community. Part of being a helpful, solution-oriented marketer is connecting people with content that solves their problems ... regardless of the source. Look, nobody knows everything. You're surrounded by people that have data, research, insights, and experiences from which your audience would benefit. Tap into that brainpower, and be the one to share it with the rest of your community! We're doing this now, in fact, with our push for our social media community to contribute ideas for our next blog post.

Not only is this an excellent way to build strong relationships with others in your industry, but it also shows that you're committed to providing answers for people regardless of the source.

5) Monitor and respond to social media inquiries. Speaking of social media, your active presence on social sites can contribute to your reputation as a thought leader, problem solver, and all around awesome business. This means more than just monitoring your Twitter stream for questions you can answer, though. Think outside of the box a bit! Visit places like LinkedIn Answers , Quora, and industry forums to see what problems people are having. Take a look at how HubSpotter Meghan Keaney Anderson improved both HubSpot's clout, and her own, by answering Scott's question on Quora. Take special note of how she linked back to a blog post HubSpot wrote that answers his question, too!

6) Optimize for long-tail search. Long-tail search is a critical component of any well-rounded SEO and content strategy, and it provides tremendous opportunity for marketers that are looking to be more solution-oriented with their content. That's because many long-tail keywords are centered around interrogative queries, like "what makes a good blog post," or "where should I host my blog," or "how to start a blog." Not only does centering content and SEO around long-tail keywords of this nature give you another avenue to assert yourself as a helpful marketer instead of a pushy salesperson, but it also helps you achieve higher search rankings quicker, and with a more niche market than short-tail and head terms allow. And if the keywords provide solutions to evergreen problems -- in other words, problems that your audience will always face -- your website will also enjoy ongoing organic traffic as a result of your high ranking for these long-tail queries!

7) Nurture leads with emails based on their problems. Now that you have all of this fantastic, solution-oriented content, you should use it to nurture your leads! After all, you can't have a successful lead nurturing program without a full arsenal of content. Consider segmenting your lists and creating lead nurturing tracks that address specific buyer problems. You can identify the problems right in your landing page forms. Take a look at the optional field we at HubSpot include on almost all of our landing pages to allow us to do this type of nurturing.

By asking leads to identify their biggest marketing challenge, we get a better idea of what problems our audience face so we can create content to address it, and simultaneously target prospects in our email sends according to the problems they need an answer to.

8) Create apps and tools that help solve a problem. Tools and apps -- especially free ones -- are mutually beneficial for businesses and their audience. Let's take one of HubSpot's free tools, Marketing Grader , as an example. Marketing Grader helps solve a problem many marketers face ... they don't know how good their marketing is. When you enter your website into the free tool, you get a comprehensive report that tells you not just an arbitrary grade, but also actionable advice on exactly what areas of your marketing need improvement, and how you can do it. It even provides links to content that helps solve your problems. So ask yourself: "Self, is there a tool or mobile app I could develop to help my leads and customers?" If there's a problem people in your industry face, make your business the one that solves it!

How do you inject problem solving into your marketing to gain the trust and loyalty of your prospects?

Image credit: Tomasz Stasiuk

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How to Identify & Solve Your Business Problems Using Market Research

by Caitlin Stewart , on June 19, 2014

Problem-Identification Research

By conducting new market research projects in your company, you might discover a potential dilemma or opportunity that you have not considered before. You could discover any of the following factors through problem-identification research:

• Brand Image : your customers’ perceptions of your brand. It’s extremely important to be aware of how customers view your company. Determining which strategies you want to use to positively influence your brand image can be done through researching your consumers’ current perceptions and what they want from your company.
• Market Characteristics : the characteristics of your target market . You need to consider all aspects that drive your different customers to purchase. Your customers on the west coast are going to have different purchasing behaviors than those from the east coast. Recognizing these differences between subcultures, and meeting the needs of those differences, will help your business’ marketing strategies succeed.
• Market Potential : an estimate of your product’s potential profit. If you research how consumers might react to advertising or price changes in your product before you take action, you will be better prepared and market to your consumers more accurately.
• Market Share : percent of total product sales compared to your competitors. Market share gives you an estimate of the amount of market your company holds and can give you an idea of how you compare to your competitors . It also can reveal some of your competitors' capabilities and strengths, so you can develop an appropriate strategy.

Problem-Solving Research

Once you identify your marketing problem, you need to research how to solve it. The following research options will help you solve potential problems or capitalize on opportunities identified by your company:

• Distribution Research : determining where your product should be sold and how to get it there. Distribution Research helps you plan the best way to get your product from the manufacturer to the retail shelf. In addition to deciding which retailers should carry your product, you should determine where your inventory will be held.
• Market Segmentation : Grouping customers by similar backgrounds or similar purchase behaviors. Utilizing problem-solving research can determine how to most accurately accomplish this and even how to design advertisements to attract those groups. You will need to collect both qualitative and quantitative data to accurately understand your market segments.
• Pricing Research : determining the ideal price for your product. Setting the price for your product is one of the most important marketing steps. You need to keep the customer in mind as well as remember that the main goal is to maximize your profits. Consider whether or not customers can be gained through lower prices. Can you maximize profit through increasing price? How sensitive will your customers be if you begin slightly increasing price? All aspects need to be well thought-out. Researching customer’s reactions to price sensitivity is essential.
• Product Research : testing your new or revised products or completing test marketing. Researching secondary data or observing how your products will be used can allow you to effectively compete in the market. Testing different components can identify new products or discover ways to modify existing products, for example, updating a product to compete with newer products.
• Promotional Research : following up with the effectiveness of your advertising strategies . If your company is using advertisements, there are factors you need to be checking up on. Unless you are evaluating your advertising budget, if your ads are useful in both retaining and gaining customers and researching what type of ads (online, commercial or print) are most effective, you truly cannot know whether you’re wasting your company’s money.

Using research for problem identification and problem solving is essential when you want to make your company the best in its market. Classifying your problem should always come before attempting to solve them. Otherwise, you might be spending money to solve the wrong problem.

You May Also Like:

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What Is Creative Problem-Solving & Why Is It Important?

• 01 Feb 2022

One of the biggest hindrances to innovation is complacency—it can be more comfortable to do what you know than venture into the unknown. Business leaders can overcome this barrier by mobilizing creative team members and providing space to innovate.

There are several tools you can use to encourage creativity in the workplace. Creative problem-solving is one of them, which facilitates the development of innovative solutions to difficult problems.

Here’s an overview of creative problem-solving and why it’s important in business.

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What Is Creative Problem-Solving?

Research is necessary when solving a problem. But there are situations where a problem’s specific cause is difficult to pinpoint. This can occur when there’s not enough time to narrow down the problem’s source or there are differing opinions about its root cause.

In such cases, you can use creative problem-solving , which allows you to explore potential solutions regardless of whether a problem has been defined.

Creative problem-solving is less structured than other innovation processes and encourages exploring open-ended solutions. It also focuses on developing new perspectives and fostering creativity in the workplace . Its benefits include:

• Finding creative solutions to complex problems : User research can insufficiently illustrate a situation’s complexity. While other innovation processes rely on this information, creative problem-solving can yield solutions without it.
• Adapting to change : Business is constantly changing, and business leaders need to adapt. Creative problem-solving helps overcome unforeseen challenges and find solutions to unconventional problems.
• Fueling innovation and growth : In addition to solutions, creative problem-solving can spark innovative ideas that drive company growth. These ideas can lead to new product lines, services, or a modified operations structure that improves efficiency.

Creative problem-solving is traditionally based on the following key principles :

1. Balance Divergent and Convergent Thinking

Creative problem-solving uses two primary tools to find solutions: divergence and convergence. Divergence generates ideas in response to a problem, while convergence narrows them down to a shortlist. It balances these two practices and turns ideas into concrete solutions.

2. Reframe Problems as Questions

By framing problems as questions, you shift from focusing on obstacles to solutions. This provides the freedom to brainstorm potential ideas.

3. Defer Judgment of Ideas

When brainstorming, it can be natural to reject or accept ideas right away. Yet, immediate judgments interfere with the idea generation process. Even ideas that seem implausible can turn into outstanding innovations upon further exploration and development.

4. Focus on "Yes, And" Instead of "No, But"

Using negative words like "no" discourages creative thinking. Instead, use positive language to build and maintain an environment that fosters the development of creative and innovative ideas.

Creative Problem-Solving and Design Thinking

Whereas creative problem-solving facilitates developing innovative ideas through a less structured workflow, design thinking takes a far more organized approach.

Design thinking is a human-centered, solutions-based process that fosters the ideation and development of solutions. In the online course Design Thinking and Innovation , Harvard Business School Dean Srikant Datar leverages a four-phase framework to explain design thinking.

The four stages are:

• Clarify: The clarification stage allows you to empathize with the user and identify problems. Observations and insights are informed by thorough research. Findings are then reframed as problem statements or questions.
• Ideate: Ideation is the process of coming up with innovative ideas. The divergence of ideas involved with creative problem-solving is a major focus.
• Develop: In the development stage, ideas evolve into experiments and tests. Ideas converge and are explored through prototyping and open critique.
• Implement: Implementation involves continuing to test and experiment to refine the solution and encourage its adoption.

Creative problem-solving primarily operates in the ideate phase of design thinking but can be applied to others. This is because design thinking is an iterative process that moves between the stages as ideas are generated and pursued. This is normal and encouraged, as innovation requires exploring multiple ideas.

Creative Problem-Solving Tools

While there are many useful tools in the creative problem-solving process, here are three you should know:

Creating a Problem Story

One way to innovate is by creating a story about a problem to understand how it affects users and what solutions best fit their needs. Here are the steps you need to take to use this tool properly.

1. Identify a UDP

Create a problem story to identify the undesired phenomena (UDP). For example, consider a company that produces printers that overheat. In this case, the UDP is "our printers overheat."

2. Move Forward in Time

To move forward in time, ask: “Why is this a problem?” For example, minor damage could be one result of the machines overheating. In more extreme cases, printers may catch fire. Don't be afraid to create multiple problem stories if you think of more than one UDP.

3. Move Backward in Time

To move backward in time, ask: “What caused this UDP?” If you can't identify the root problem, think about what typically causes the UDP to occur. For the overheating printers, overuse could be a cause.

Following the three-step framework above helps illustrate a clear problem story:

• The printer is overused.
• The printer overheats.
• The printer breaks down.

You can extend the problem story in either direction if you think of additional cause-and-effect relationships.

4. Break the Chains

By this point, you’ll have multiple UDP storylines. Take two that are similar and focus on breaking the chains connecting them. This can be accomplished through inversion or neutralization.

• Inversion: Inversion changes the relationship between two UDPs so the cause is the same but the effect is the opposite. For example, if the UDP is "the more X happens, the more likely Y is to happen," inversion changes the equation to "the more X happens, the less likely Y is to happen." Using the printer example, inversion would consider: "What if the more a printer is used, the less likely it’s going to overheat?" Innovation requires an open mind. Just because a solution initially seems unlikely doesn't mean it can't be pursued further or spark additional ideas.
• Neutralization: Neutralization completely eliminates the cause-and-effect relationship between X and Y. This changes the above equation to "the more or less X happens has no effect on Y." In the case of the printers, neutralization would rephrase the relationship to "the more or less a printer is used has no effect on whether it overheats."

Even if creating a problem story doesn't provide a solution, it can offer useful context to users’ problems and additional ideas to be explored. Given that divergence is one of the fundamental practices of creative problem-solving, it’s a good idea to incorporate it into each tool you use.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a tool that can be highly effective when guided by the iterative qualities of the design thinking process. It involves openly discussing and debating ideas and topics in a group setting. This facilitates idea generation and exploration as different team members consider the same concept from multiple perspectives.

Hosting brainstorming sessions can result in problems, such as groupthink or social loafing. To combat this, leverage a three-step brainstorming method involving divergence and convergence :

• Have each group member come up with as many ideas as possible and write them down to ensure the brainstorming session is productive.
• Continue the divergence of ideas by collectively sharing and exploring each idea as a group. The goal is to create a setting where new ideas are inspired by open discussion.
• Begin the convergence of ideas by narrowing them down to a few explorable options. There’s no "right number of ideas." Don't be afraid to consider exploring all of them, as long as you have the resources to do so.

Alternate Worlds

The alternate worlds tool is an empathetic approach to creative problem-solving. It encourages you to consider how someone in another world would approach your situation.

For example, if you’re concerned that the printers you produce overheat and catch fire, consider how a different industry would approach the problem. How would an automotive expert solve it? How would a firefighter?

Be creative as you consider and research alternate worlds. The purpose is not to nail down a solution right away but to continue the ideation process through diverging and exploring ideas.

Continue Developing Your Skills

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, marketer, or business leader, learning the ropes of design thinking can be an effective way to build your skills and foster creativity and innovation in any setting.

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The 4 Types of Innovation and the Problems They Solve

by Greg Satell

Summary .   

Innovation is, at its core, about solving problems — and there are as many ways to innovate as there are different types of problems to solve. Just like we wouldn’t rely on a single marketing tactic for the life of an organization, or a single source of financing, we need to build up a portfolio of innovation strategies designed for specific tasks. Leaders identify the right type of strategy to solve the right type of problem, just by asking two questions: How well we can define the problem and how well we can define the skill domain(s) needed to solve it. Well-defined problems that benefit from well-defined skills fall into the category of “sustaining innovation.” Most innovation happens here, because most of the time we’re trying to get better at something we’re already doing. “Breakthrough innovation” is needed when we run into a well-defined problem that’s just devilishly hard to solve. In cases like these, we need to explore unconventional skill domains. When the reverse is true — skills are well-defined, but the problem is not — we can tap into “disruptive innovation” strategies. And when nothing is well-defined, well, then we’re in the exploratory, pioneering realm of basic research. There are always new problems to solve; learn to apply the solution that best fits your current problem.

One of the best innovation stories I’ve ever heard came to me from a senior executive at a leading tech firm. Apparently, his company had won a million-dollar contract to design a sensor that could detect pollutants at very small concentrations underwater. It was an unusually complex problem, so the firm set up a team of crack microchip designers, and they started putting their heads together.

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How to become a strategic problem solver in 5 steps

Problem solving is an underrated talent. It helps you make clear decisions during turbulent, overwhelming times, and many experts identify it as a vital soft skill for job seekers post-pandemic .

To develop your problem-solving acumen, use a structured approach that focuses on the why, what, and how of your issue. Let’s break it down by asking five questions that will serve as a step-by-step guide.

Question 1: Why should I care about this problem?

Write a problem statement, which is a few short sentences describing an issue you’re facing that also affects your audience. Use specific, quantifiable details. Instead of, “We lose money each year due to quality issues,” a better statement would be, “In 2019, we lost $1 million due to quality errors. That’s 5% of our overall revenue.”

You don’t want to define a problem so big that you lack resources to solve it or get so specific that you miss the chance to have a greater impact. Also, avoid prematurely adding in a solution, like “We need to hire a quality assurance consultant.” Solutions come later.

Question 2: What does success look like?

Set an objective that defines what you want to achieve and key results to know when you’ve achieved it. Your objective should focus on a goal, not a solution. “Make our website an intuitive and enjoyable experience for visitors,” is an objective, but “Hire 5 UX designers,” is a solution. Then define measurable key results so you know for sure when you’ve achieved your goal. “Get increased click-throughs,” is vague, but you’ll know when you “Increase click-throughs by 30%.”

Question 3: How might I solve this problem?

Now it’s time to brainstorm potential solutions. Start by finding out as much as you can about your problem. Find out if there’s available research on problems like yours, and look to “parallel worlds” outside your industry where a similar issue has been addressed before.

If you’re holding a group brainstorm, choose one person as the moderator, and others as timekeeper and notetaker. Then brainstorm as many solutions as possible that might address your problem and help you reach your objective and key results. Tell everyone to be expansive in their thinking: Come up with both big and small ideas without self-editing.

Once you have a list of potential solutions, put them in a solution tree to help organise your goals and how you’ll get there (your strategy). Start by writing down your objective. For the sake of an easy example, let’s say your objective is “Increase product revenue.” Create branches from each objective that list solutions you brainstormed, like “Sell more of the same products,” and “Start selling new products.”

Solution tree

Think with Google

Share this page, question 4: how should i actually solve the problem.

A prioritisation map helps you winnow your ideas to decide in which ones you should invest effort. Make a graph with a vertical axis labeled “impact” and a horizontal axis labeled “effort.” Then plot out all your potential solutions on the graph.

Prioritisation map

High-impact and high-effort solutions will likely be the main focus of your work. Ones that are high impact and low effort are quick wins, and good for building stakeholder confidence. Low-impact and low-effort solutions should be deprioritised and only focused on when you have some free time. Low-impact and high-effort solutions are probably not worth your time.

Question 5: How can I take action?

Make a simple plan to solve your problem, avoiding unnecessary detail. You can use an action tracker, which can be a spreadsheet that breaks down who does what and when. In the first column, put all the actions that make up your problem-solving steps. In the second column, note who is responsible for each action and when it should be done.

Action tracker

Discuss and agree on task ownership and due dates with the people responsible so that everyone is on the same page. Share your action tracker with the group and regularly review it together to make sure due dates are met.

Remember that no matter how well you plan, things will change and your plan will have to change too. Be prepared to modify it so you can stay on track and achieve your goals.

Problem solving doesn’t need to be complicated. By following the right steps, you can avoid jumping into solution mode too quickly. Just think of the structure “why, what, and how,” and you’ll start to see your problems in a new way.

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Extensive Problem Solving

This article covers meaning, importance & example of Extensive Problem Solving from marketing perspective.

What is Extensive Problem Solving?

Extensive problem solving is the purchase decision marking in a situation in which the buyer has no information, experience about the products, services and suppliers. In extensive problem solving, lack of information also spreads to the brands for the product and also the criterion that they set for segregating the brands to be small or manageable subsets that help in the purchasing decision later. Consumers usually go for extensive problem solving when they discover that a need is completely new to them which requires significant effort to satisfy it.

The decision making process of a customer includes different levels of purchase decisions, i.e. extensive problem solving, limited problem solving and routinized choice behaviour.

Elements of Extensive Problem Solving

The various parameters which leads to extensive problem solving are:

1. Highly Priced Products: Like a car, house

2. Infrequent Purchases: Purchasing an automobile, HD TV

3. More Customer Participation: Purchasing a laptop with selection of RAM, ROM, display etc

4. Unfamiliar Product Category: Real-estate is a very unexplored category

5. Extensive Research & Time: Locality of buying house, proximity to hospital, station, market etc.

All these parameters or elements leads to extensive problem solving for the customer while taking a decision to make a purchase.

• Problem Recognition
• Problem Solution Approach

Importance of Extensive Problem Solving

It is very important for marketers to know the process that customers go through before purchasing. They cannot rely upon re-buys and word of mouth all the time for acquiring new customers. The customer in general goes through problem recognition, information search, evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation. Closely related to a purchase decision is the problem solving phase. A new product with long term investment leads to extensive problem solving from a customer. This signifies that not all buying situations are same. A rebuy is very much different from a first choice purchase. The recognition that a brand enjoys in a customer’s mind helps the customer to make purchase decisions easily. If the brand has a dedicated marketing communication effort, whenever a consumer feels the need for a new product, they instantly go for it.

To help customers in extensive problem solving, companies must have clear transparent communication. It is thus very important for marketers to use a proper marketing mix so that they can have some cognition from their customers when they think of new products. With the advent of social media, the number of channels for promotion have hugely developed and they require a clear understanding on the segment of customer that each channel serves. The communication channels should lucidly differentiate themselves from other brands so that they are purchased quickly and easily.

Example of Extensive Problem Solving

Let us suppose, that Amber wants to buy a High Definition TV. The problem being, she has no idea regarding it. This is a case of extensive problem solving as the amount of information is low, the risk she is taking is high as she is going with the opinion that she gathers from her peers, the item is expensive and at the same time it also demands huge amount of involvement from the customer. Similarly, buying high price and long-term assets or products like car, motorcycle, house etc leads to extensive problem solving decision for the customers.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Extensive Problem Solving along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team which comprises of MBA students, management professionals, and industry experts. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team . The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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15 common marketing problems and their solutions

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It is very common (and normal) to encounter marketing problems during the planning, development and finalisation of campaigns. Read on to find out how you can overcome them

Marketing is an industry full of obstacles, but for each of them there is a solution that requires continuous learning, motivation, time and resources. Marketing problems can be found at any stage of any campaign, but they could also be considered challenges. Because we all know that the ultimate goal is to sell more and improve the company's profitability, but the process to achieve it is by no means simple.

The 15 most recurrent marketing problems and how to solve them

how do I find customers? Where is my niche in such a competitive market? These are just two of the most frequently asked questions related to marketing, but there are many more. That is why OCCAM has come up with 15 common marketing problems and possible solutions with hyperlinks to complementary information that can be useful for both veteran companies and start-ups. Let's look at them one by one:

• Not setting goals or setting them incorrectly

Before launching a short- or long-term marketing strategy (such as inbound marketing ), it is essential to define clear objectives that you want to achieve. Otherwise, campaigns will probably lose their focus because they are not directed towards a specific goal. The same happens when objectives are set, but incorrectly.

Solution : always write objectives with SMART criteria in mind.

Failure to differentiate

Regardless of the marketing strategy employed, differentiation of the company from its competitors is essential to ensure that its products are of interest to the public. Moreover, it will facilitate all promotional actions carried out by having clear and easy-to-communicate characteristics.

Solution : it is necessary to find the brand's market segment or niche through innovation, originality and the quality of its services .

• Not targeting a segmented public

It may happen that a company tries to address all types of social profiles or does not choose its ideal target audience. If either of these two cases occurs, it will be much more complicated to find customers interested in the brand and to determine an adapted communication strategy, as it is not the same to address teenagers as it is to address older people, for example.

Solution : study the ideal segmentation for the company and establish a buyer persona .

Failure to adequately communicate the product or service

This marketing problem is very common in newly founded brands that have to make themselves known through a new product. But to reach the public, it is necessary to be able to explain what it consists of quickly, clearly and simply. In addition, it is necessary to adapt to each segmented group, whether in the tone of the language, the communication channel or the format of the message.

Solution : make an effort to know the product and research it by analysing the competition and talking to the rest of the team. Once this is done, it will be possible to extract its most attractive elements to use them in the communication strategy, which will present its advantages, qualities, values, etc.

• Lack of knowledge of useful techniques and tools

Marketing offers a very broad catalogue of strategies to launch a campaign. Of course, not all of them are equally well known, and a company could be missing out on promotional opportunities by using only traditional techniques instead of others that are more in line with its objectives. The same goes for tools, as platforms such as HubSpot are very helpful to a company's marketing team .

Solution : discover all the types of marketing that exist and consider the use of tools .

• Complications in finding customers

The above problem is often related to a rather limited reach that does not translate into real customer acquisition, because finding the target audience and attracting their attention is not an easy task.

Solution : launch commercial actions in line with the company's budget and objectives .

• Incorrect pricing strategy

Thanks to differentiation and the establishment of a market niche, the company will not be solely dependent on price competition. Even so, prices must be studied and calculated to the millimetre in order to, at the very least, cover costs.

Solution : create a good pricing strategy according to the 5Cs and with the impact of psychology in mind .

• Lack of budget or overspending

Depending on the size of the company and other variables, the budget will be more or less comfortable. In marketing, the important thing is to make the most of every euro and invest it in those strategies that are viable and most effective. In addition, it is worth highlighting the essential work of planning so as not to exceed the maximum expenditure set and generate a bigger problem.

Solution : make a good marketing budget , opt for commercial actions adapted to it and control spending .

• Disconnections between teams in the same company

It is not uncommon for marketing and sales managers to clash or not to be heading in the same direction. This is a major problem, as the work of the two sectors should be clearly divided, despite their commonalities.

Solution : Convene regular meetings and ensure communication and joint work to align the two teams .

• Insufficient search engine ranking

SEO positioning depends on many factors, all of which must be taken into account to make it easier for potential customers to find information about the company on the Internet. These include responsive design , usability , keywords , writing techniques , etc. Not working on these elements, in addition to harming positioning in search engine results, will worsen the user's experience with the company .

Solution : manage the concepts related to SEO and adapt to them as well as possible .

Having a high bounce rate on the website

The bounce rate or bounce rate refers to all those users who visit a website and leave it without having interacted, navigated or clicked on internal links. This indicates the amount of potential customers a brand is losing and, with it, sales and profits.

Solution : measure the bounce rate, analyse the source of the problem and improve the website accordingly (with a special focus on visual design) .

• Not making the most of social networks

Interaction with users and the possibility of creating a community loyal to the brand depend, for the most part, on social networks, whether Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook... Companies have to take advantage of their benefits and opportunities which, if done well, are very profitable with little investment. Not doing so would only lead to problems and deficiencies in the customer's experience with the brand.

Solution : establish a good communication strategy with your social profiles and, if possible, hire a community manager .

Not working on engagement

Captivating users and engaging them with the brand is a long-term, original and constant task, but it is worth it for its benefits. If customers feel part of a company or generate an emotional bond with it, then they will want it to do well, their acquaintances to know about it and buy products regularly, to give three examples.

Solution : make the entire marketing team aware of this concept, follow the advice that works best for the brand and look at success stories for inspiration.

• Poor digital reputation and brand image

Marketing should be concerned about the image it gives outwardly, be it online (reviews or social media), in the media or in private conversations. Make the most of positive opinions and try to address negative ones. A considerable proportion of sales depend on this.

Solution : carry out a brand image study and find solutions to possible shortcomings .

• Failure to analyse results or poor data management

The last marketing problem is, in turn, a conclusion. The time invested in each strategy or commercial action (both offline and online) requires a subsequent study (and follow-up) to check what has worked, what has not, its profitability and whether the objectives have been met. The conclusions derived from this analysis will allow improvements to be made for the future.

Solution : create a results report for each marketing campaign following the steps and using expert tools in data analysis and management .

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Problem-solving scenario #4: team not meeting targets, problem-solving scenario #5: team facing high turnover, problem-solving scenario #6: team member facing discrimination, problem-solving scenario #7: new manager unable to motivate a team, building an effective problem-solving framework, wrapping up, frequently asked questions for managers.

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Problem-Solving Scenarios for Managers

• Talk to the team members: John begins by asking what’s holding them back. Based on their responses, he realizes that he needs to delegate better. Immediately, John schedules meetings to  clarify each member’s expectations , priorities, and roles and ensure everyone is on the same page. He also makes a note to work on his delegation skills.
• Plan things: John creates a project timeline or task list that outlines the deadlines and deliverables for each team member and shares this with the team to ensure that everyone is aware of what is expected of them.
• Support the team: The team sits together to establish regular check-ins or progress updates to ensure members can ask questions or raise concerns.

Problem-solving Scenario # 2 : Handling a Product Launch

• Review and redraw plans:  Emily revisited the project plan and identified areas where the team could reduce the scope or prioritize features to meet the budget constraints.
• Go for alternatives:  The team then explored alternative resources or suppliers to find cost-effective options. Are there any underutilized resources, equipment, or personnel from other projects or departments that can be temporarily assigned to this project? Moreover, they revisited their suppliers and negotiated further.
• Outsourcing parts of the project:  Emily considered outsourcing some project functions to external contractors or freelancers. Eventually, they outsourced the marketing to another team and continued working on the core features.
• Upgrade the available capacity:  Emily and her team invested in upskilling the present workforce with additional skills. It allowed some team members to explore exciting areas and supplemented the team.
• Get both sides onboard: Taylor begins the conflict resolution process by talking to both team members. She recognizes the issue and first goes into individual discussions with both. Later, she sets up a meeting for both to share their perspectives.
• Mediation:  In the next step, the manager encourages the two team members to talk to each other and resolve the conflict independently. Taylor describes how the optimal contribution can look different for different team members. Additionally, she encourages them to be more open and collaborative so that they understand what the other one does.
• Preventing mistakes again:  The team holds a meeting to discuss the issue and allow other team members to express their thoughts and feelings. By not hiding the problem that happened in front of everyone, Taylor acknowledges the issues and shows that she cares about the things happening inside the team. Further, by discussing and sharing, they can build a healthy relationship to prevent similar issues in the future. 
• Use formal tools: Lastly, they establish clear guidelines and expectations for behavior and communication within the team to prevent future conflicts. Training and coaching are also added to help team members improve their communication and conflict-resolution skills.
• Discussions with the Sales Representatives: Donna starts by having one-on-one conversations with each team member to understand their perspectives on why the targets are not being met. After gathering insights from personal discussions, Donna calls for a team meeting. During the session, she allows team members to share their experiences, challenges, and suggestions openly. 
• Analysis of Sales Process: Donna conducts a detailed sales process analysis, from lead generation to closing deals. She identifies bottlenecks and areas where the team might be facing difficulties. This analysis helps her pinpoint specific stages that need improvement. 
• Setting Realistic Targets: Donna understands that overly ambitious targets might be demotivating. She collaborates with her team to develop more achievable yet challenging sales targets based on their current performance and market conditions. She organizes training sessions and workshops to help team members develop the necessary skills and knowledge to excel. 
• Recognition and Incentives: Donna introduces a recognition program and incentives for meeting and exceeding targets to motivate the team. This helps boost morale and encourages healthy competition within the team. She closely monitors the team’s progress toward the revised targets. 
• Conduct Exit Interviews:  As the stream of resignation continues, Neil adopts a realistic approach and starts by attempting to understand the issues his former team members face. He conducts exit interviews with the people leaving and tries to determine what’s wrong. 
• Understand the current team:  In the next step, Neil tries to learn the perspectives of staying people. Through surveys and conversations, he lists the good parts of working in his team and emphasizes them. He also finds the challenges and works on reducing them. 
• Change and adapt to employee needs:  These conversations help Neil enable a better work environment to help him contain turnover and attract top talent. Moving forward, he ensures that pay is competitive and work is aligned with the employee’s goals. He also involves stakeholders to create development and growth opportunities for his team.
• Be approachable and open: Erica first ensures she can gather all the details from the team members. She provides them with a safe space and comfort to express their concern and ensures that action will be taken. She supports the targeted team members, such as access to counselling or other resources.
• Adopt and follow an official policy: Developing and enforcing anti-discrimination policies that clearly state the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is the first step to creating a safe workplace. Erica refers to the policy and takes immediate action accordingly, including a thorough investigation.
• Reiterating commitment and goals: Providing diversity and inclusion training to all team members to help them understand the impact of discrimination and how to prevent it is essential to create a safe workplace. Erica ensures that the team members are aware of the provisions, the DEI goals set by the organization, and 
• Connect with the team: Andrew starts by conducting one-on-one meetings with team members to understand their personal and professional goals, challenges, and strengths. Observing team dynamics and identifying any issues or obstacles hindering motivation and productivity also helps.
• Involving team members in the process: Seeking feedback from team members on what motivates them and what they want to see from their manager to feel more inspired.
• Enabling and empowering: Offering opportunities for growth and development, such as training, mentoring, or leadership roles, helped Andrew contribute to his team’s development. 
• Take help from Merlin: Andrew reached out to Merlin, the AI chatbot of Risely, to get tips whenever he got stuck. Merlin sought details about his issues and shared some tips to help out Andrew. Here is what it looked like: 

• Develop a problem-solving process: To get problem-solving right for multiple scenarios repeatedly, the key is to remember and set a problem-solving approach that works across the board. A wide-ranged problem-solving process that begins with identification and concludes at the resolution helps managers navigate various challenges the profession throws us. 
• Learn to identify problems: The key to solving problems is placing them at the right moment. If you let some problems pester for long, they can become more significant issues for the teams. Hence, building the understanding to identify issues is essential for managers.
• Think from multiple perspectives: As a problem-solver, you must care for various parties and stakeholders. Thus, thinking from numerous perspectives and considering ideas from a broad spectrum of people is a core skill. 
• Consistently work on skills: Like other managerial skills, problem-solving skills need constant practice and review. Over time, your skills can become more robust with the help of assessments and toolkits. Tools like Risely can help you with resources and constant guidance to overcome managerial challenges. Check out Risely today to start reaching your true potential.

Suprabha Sharma

Suprabha, a versatile professional who blends expertise in human resources and psychology, bridges the divide between people management and personal growth with her novel perspectives at Risely. Her experience as a human resource professional has empowered her to visualize practical solutions for frequent managerial challenges that form the pivot of her writings.

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Problems are a regular part of our lives. They are natural in any business. And your success will largely depend on how you solve these problems and how much effort you put into addressing them.

In the early stages of business development, you will face many challenges. Whether it's handling operational inefficiencies or managing customer expectations, problem-solving skills are essential for driving growth.

In this article, we will reveal five key problem-solving skills that every entrepreneur and leader who wants to lead a team should possess. These qualities help you tackle immediate challenges and prepare your business for sustainable long-term growth.

Analytical Thinking: Breaking Down Complex Problems

Any problem can seem overwhelmingly complicated until you break it down into many small components, each of which requires one specific action. This is known as analytical thinking — the ability to recognize the main challenge, identify the key goals to overcome it, and compile a list of tasks to achieve them. For example, if you are faced with negative customer feedback, analytical thinking will help you to highlight the key points in it, find the roots of the problem in employee performance and product issues, and change the company's management policy to address these.

Analytical thinking is also related to the ability to read data and see certain trends. Studying metrics allows you to find out what works well in your business and what doesn't work at all. By making data-driven decisions, businesses can develop more effective strategies tailored to specific challenges. You don't have to rely on your brain alone to do this. Online financial management platforms like Wallester have user-friendly dashboards for quick diagnostics and detailed analytics to break down specific small parts of the problem.

Key takeaway : Cultivating analytical thinking allows businesses to understand problems in depth, ensuring the solutions implemented are relevant and effective.

Creativity: Finding Innovative Solutions

If a problem seems insurmountable, the solution may simply lie elsewhere. To find it, you should think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions that others might overlook. To do this, you should evaluate the problem not only from the traditional perspective of a businessperson but also from other angles — as a customer, an employee, or an independent observer.

For example, if a startup has a problem finding qualified personnel, it can temporarily replace certain positions with artificial intelligence and present it as a test of innovative technologies. With the right marketing, this can turn a negative reaction into a positive one.

Key takeaway : Encourage creativity within your team to explore fresh ideas that can address challenges in ways traditional methods cannot.

Adaptability: Adjusting to Changing Circumstances

Business is a dynamic entity whose development is more like a sinusoidal curve than a straight line. Companies experience ups and downs caused by changes in markets and target audiences. They have to plan for growth but also be prepared for downturns. Being adaptive means developing strategies that include “B,” “C,” and sometimes even “D” plans.

Adaptive leaders can recognize that certain solutions no longer work. They have the strength to abandon old methods in favor of new ones. They use flexible tools that can also adapt to current circumstances. For example, the Wallester platform allows you to instantly close corporate cards that have become unnecessary after the completion of a particular project. This helps reduce company costs and simplify control over the targeted use of funds.

Key takeaway : Cultivate adaptability within your leadership and teams to respond quickly and efficiently to new challenges, ensuring your business remains competitive.

Collaboration: Leveraging Team Expertise

No one can run a large-scale successful business alone. For a company to grow, develop, and improve its performance, you need to delegate authority. Only in this way will it be flexible and dynamic enough to remain competitive.

Teamwork allows you to create a synergistic effect — together, the team has much more knowledge, skills, and experience than each employee individually. And that's not to mention the potential for finding creative, non-standard solutions during brainstorming sessions. The secret to success in collaboration is to be able to trust but maintain invisible threads of control that will help identify the problem in time and take measures to overcome the crisis.

Key takeaway : Foster collaboration within your team to generate innovative, well-rounded solutions that everyone is invested in.

Decision-Making: Acting on Solutions with Confidence

Determining how to grow your company and overcome challenges is only half the battle. You should also make carefully considered but timely and confident decisions about which solutions to implement and how to execute them. Strong decision-making skills are essential for turning insights into actions that drive business growth.

But it's important to understand that decision-making is not about being ready to jump into action when you see the first best way to solve a problem. It's the ability to quickly assess pros and cons, identify risks, and choose methods of hedging them before taking action. This requires critical thinking and the confidence to commit to a course of action, even when faced with uncertainty.

Key takeaway: Develop decision-making skills within your leadership team to implement solutions swiftly, ensuring your business can address problems before they escalate.

Problem-solving is a multifaceted set of skills and abilities that stimulates business development and makes it sustainable. First of all, a manager must be able to analyze problems and break them down into small parts to set specific tasks. They need creativity, adaptability, and the ability to delegate authority. But no less important will be the timely adoption of informed decisions that will make the company competitive by taking into account current circumstances.

Continue to: Innovation Skills Brainstorming Techniques

See also: Harnessing Creativity in Problem-Solving: Innovations for Overcoming Challenges How to Create A Small Business Growth Strategy Strategic Planning for Long-Term Business Success