Course: Problem Solving | AD SME

Course: Problem Solving 

In our first video of the Problem Solving series, we tackle the importance of challenges and uncovering the opportunities that lie beneath the problem.

 

The story of Airbnb is rich in anecdotes on problems that, on closer look, revealed themselves as opportunities in disguise. By simply going through the problem step-by-step, they recognized the asset value of their own real estate under certain conditions, coupled with their ability to provide competitive prices.

 

A key takeaway for aspiring entrepreneurs is to reframe their mindset towards problems - especially those with existing market solutions – to perceive those as opportunities and to research methods to address said gaps. Watch more videos like this on https://www.adsmehub.ae/en/learn/eye-opener

My founders were finding it expensive to commute around town, so they started me as a ride-sharing service in an effort to help improve cab transportation in the US and make it more affordable and accessible. I have since become an international USD 69 billion sensation. I am ___________________.

1 / 5

My founders could not pay rent. They started renting their own apartment to guest and cooking breakfast for them, taking advantage of how the city’s hotels were overbooked. I am now worth 71 billion USD. I am ________________.

2 / 5

I started out as a location-sharing app that nobody was using to share locations. My founders were smart enough to realise that my photo-sharing feature was popular, so they pivoted me into a simple photo-sharing app. I have been bought by Facebook for USD 500 million. I am _________________.

3 / 5

I became the leading social medium for sharing brief opinions and thoughts. This was after my founders realised that it was pointless to compete with Apple iTunes for podcast-sharing, so they pivoted me. I am ________________.

4 / 5

I came about in an effort to solve a simple problem: how to connect with friends? I am now worth >USD 430 billion. I am ____________________.

5 / 5

When you know how to properly do research, it’s much easier to answer such questions effectively, rather than proceed purely on gut feeling.

 

At its core, research is an attempt to answer a question, such as “How do I get users to flock to my app for downloads/paid subscriptions?” or “How do I get users not to churn (uninstall)/unsubscribe to my app?”.  In this video, we will dive headfirst into how an aspiring entrepreneur can address such problems via research, by taking the case study of DuoLingo, the most successful language-learning mobile app today.

 

Find out in this video how you can identify a problem that you want to solve by following the rigorous steps of objective researching.

You are in the process of designing a product/service. Before you go ahead and invest a lot of time and effort towards this, you want to be certain you are on the right track. 

 

Answer the following questions to understand how best to proceed:

 

What do you do to get started on researching your product idea?

1 / 5

What should you as an entrepreneur ask right at the start of your research?

2 / 5

What resources can you rely on for your research?

3 / 5

What if you asked the right research question(s)/problem(s), BUT the answer(s) comes back unfavorable (i.e. market is not currently ready to pay me to deliver said product/service concept)?

4 / 5

Once you have studied the market properly, what is the outcome of your research?

5 / 5

 

How do you as an entrepreneur conduct guided research leading to a clear action plan?

 

Crucially, how do you evaluate the research? Before investigating such a problem, you come up with a list of questions that you need to answer to evaluate if it is worth digging deeper into.

 

When these questions are rightfully answered, you can evaluate whether it is worth it to further explore the problem, or if you need to refine your research to a problem that is more specific, broader, or altogether different.

What is a problem that is not worth solving for an entrepreneur?

1 / 6

What do you - as an entrepreneur - do if the problem you are researching is addressed by other solutions in the market?

2 / 6

What was the main challenge faced by the founders of Odeo?

3 / 6

What is the best way to evaluate your research as an entrepreneur?

4 / 6

What metrics did the founders of Odeo rely on to measure their potential for success?

5 / 6

What did the founders of Odeo do when they realised they could not compete with Apple?

6 / 6

Given a clearly defined business/product, you need to research, gather data and prepare a slide deck with an overview and list of the problems and trends together with a competitor landscape and SWOT analysis.

 

Finally, use all this data to answer the simple question: is my business problem worth pursuing?

 

How do you get insights into the success of your product?

1 / 6

What did Burbn’s founders find to be its greatest weakness?

2 / 6

What did Burbn’s founders do with their app when they realised from the research that its photo-sharing features were popular with users?

3 / 6

What market research did Burbn’s founders conduct after examining their product’s usage data analytics?

4 / 6

What was Instagram’s chief asset upon relaunch?

5 / 6

What is the main takeaway(s) from the Instagram story?

6 / 6

Lessons

01. Why is having problems a good thing for aspiring entrepreneurs?
02. Why are problems good for entrepreneurs?
03. Quiz : “I am a unicorn that was founded to solve a real-life problem(s). Name me.”
04. What are the steps of an objective research to identify a problem that you want to solve?
05. Steps to Doing Research
06. Quiz: Steps to Doing Research
07. How to evaluate research?
08. Evaluating Your Objective Research
09. Quiz: How to evaluate research?
10. What can your company achieve when you do the necessary research?
11. Effective research leads to effective business ideas
12. Quiz: Effective research leads to effective business ideas
Lessons

Lessons

01. Why is having problems a good thing for aspiring entrepreneurs?
02. Why are problems good for entrepreneurs?
03. Quiz : “I am a unicorn that was founded to solve a real-life problem(s). Name me.”
04. What are the steps of an objective research to identify a problem that you want to solve?
05. Steps to Doing Research
06. Quiz: Steps to Doing Research
07. How to evaluate research?
08. Evaluating Your Objective Research
09. Quiz: How to evaluate research?
10. What can your company achieve when you do the necessary research?
11. Effective research leads to effective business ideas
12. Quiz: Effective research leads to effective business ideas

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