Simplifying, discovering, and innovating using consumer insights
Greetings and welcome readers!
I come from the ‘Steel City’ (Raurkela, Odisha), and currently, based out of ‘The Garden City’ (Bengaluru, Karnataka) in India. I am a Product Enthusiast and 10 years new in the Marketing research and consulting domain. – And that is how I love to refer, since there’s still a lot to learn.
“ My passion is ‘technology’ and the value it brings in to our day-to-day lives, and I am a huge believer in how “Empathy drives Innovation."
To confess, I have a ‘super questioning’ mind, that has landed me in all sorts of places (quite often imaginary too) and as a true Gemini, my experimentation nature and unquenchable thirst for knowledge has made me sign up for many courses before I can complete the already signed ones, buy more books than I can keep up my reading pace with, delve in to topics ranging from Product Strategy to Human Strategy, Consumer Insights, to Business Analytics and Insights, from User Experience to Experience, from Economics to Behavioral Economics, from Artificial Intelligence>Machine Learning>Deep Learning to Human Learning, and from Physics to Spirituality and Meta-Physics.
I am here for the pure joy of writing, sharing to create a difference in whatever minimal way I can, collaborating, and learning together (while having fun) about all the areas or topics (definite attempt to simplify things best for all the readers).
I agree, that’s an unusually long introduction, but I presume first timers are at liberty!
Drawing attention to the key reason for writing this article, there have been a lot of questions (and answers too) from numerous people on the how do we get started with building a product? Of course there are quite a lot of valid answers that are already floating around, but here is the story of PIP (Problem>Insights>Product), and my two cents to show my love for simplifying things.
A mini disclaimer before moving ahead, I will be trying my best to write about things in a simple manner – but of course be using certain jargons with their explanations to connect it to the various domains (insights and products) to help you connect it to the business language.
The Three Step PIP Process (Problem, Insights & Product)
Figure 1: The PIP Framework
Problem: We start with the origin of problems (of course it’s all about people at the end of the day), anything and everything that we do or intend to do, starts with solving a problem for people, either in a way that has not been addressed, or addressed but not with a unique solution or value add solution like you would have thought
Insights: To spot a problem or to solve a problem, you would definitely need to pay close attention to the people facing this problem and understand the nature of the problem. At the end of the day, it’s all about understanding people and human behavior, the fundamental nature of why is this problem there in the first place. Insights in to understanding the WH Family (Who, Where, What, Why, When, and How) as an observer (or with the research mind-set) using any form of data is the key
Product: Following the above, to connect the dots, you would then need to think beyond processes and projects, to determine whether the problem and the insights gained, are in place to scale it to an audience worth of having a product (whether it is scalable, whether the audience set is a sizeable segment, whether the product has unique and/or has better offerings than existing products or solutions in the market
Blogging gives your site a voice, so let your business’ personality shine through. Choose a great image to feature in your post or add a video for extra engagement. Are you ready to get started? Simply create a new post now.
And in all of this the key is to have ‘Empathy’ (by placing yourself in the shoes of for whom you are trying to solve this problem) and then that’s what would pave your path for ‘Innovation.’
Let’s deep dive a bit more in to this
Problem (What’s this?): While there are multiple definitions available on the web defining what a problem actually is, I love the one that’s well articulated by Wikipedia (Source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem) which is “A problem is a situation preventing something from being achieved.” Naturally, the next question is what kind of situation is it, could be anything, so let’s take the recent times to be able to relate better. The objective of Mobility has always been moving from Point A to Point B, but it has evolved quite a bit over the years, with comfort, entertainment, and convenience driving this aspect for the consumers. However, during COVID-19, specifically ‘Safety’ during and post the lockdown phase gained ranks in consumers mind.
Hence, the problem focus shifted from “How do I travel to XYZ place” to “How do I travel safely with no or minimum risk of contracting the virus to XYZ place) – a very important problem to solve considering a lot of aspects (starting from people’s health to the financial health of the country) depended on this.
Now that’s a problem, and for us understanding this fine differentiation i.e. problem given, problem understood, and the problem worth solving, is very important – assess the real problem and not only the symptoms
Insights (How will this help?): But although there were promises of sanitation of various transport means, there was a hesitation among the consumers to take private transport means. Where did the problem lie in this case?
My personal views again (also there could be multiple research studies which could be already present though), the word “social distancing” and “contactless interactions need” got deep-rooted in the consumers mindset, key insight being the “fear mindset – for the need for minimizing or avoiding any form of interactions of self and family with others, to be safe.”
The sources for this could have been from interacting with consumers, deeply analysing other industries and trying to draw in parallel learning, experiencing it yourself or seeing a near and dear one in a similar situation, reading about what people were sharing on the web, – remember that insights could be coming in from anywhere, and hence, active observation and understanding the causality is the key
Product (Why innovate?): As the famous Mr. Jeff Bezos (Amazon’s CEO) said in his recent letter to Amazonians, “Invention is the root of our success. We’ve done crazy things together, and then made them normal,” innovation is the key to move ahead. Taking a look at the same example of trying to get from Point A to Point B – but this time in a safe manner (concerned by the virus outbreak and contamination and contraction risk), led to many inventions during this period, one of the simplest (and powerful) one which even the Auto rickshaw drivers immediately implemented (seen across states in India) was adding a ‘layer of plastic sheet between the driver and the passenger seat.’ This is also inspiring auto makers (across all probable mobility providers, especially dealing with public transport) to make an inbuilt one as an add-on feature.
Of course, there’s a plethora of work to be done in each of the steps above, and especially while moving in to the ‘product phase,’ which would need one generate ideas to solve the same problem, screen them to save time and cost, figure out the solution viability based on insights gained while understanding the pain vs. the gain, understanding the competitors, figuring out pricing model (such Cost based, Value based, and Subscription model or Razer model), whether yours would be a better developing a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and test marketing, pricing, creating GTM or Go To Market strategy (including advertising strategy and to launch to many more)…
This was just a small example and an attempt to introduce the PIP framework, albeit a simple one which could already be related to a number of already present detailed frameworks. I would love to listen to your thoughts, feedback, and comments.
Thank you, stay safe and have a nice day, and week until you come back next!
Message for the day: Bring in a smile on your face and some empathy in your hearts towards all the people around you!