In business, problems are not just obstacles. They can be opportunities to grow and gain an advantage over competitors, but only if you understand and solve their root causes. Many companies fix only surface issues, which leads to more trouble later. That’s why it’s important to use both research and diagnosis.
Research and diagnosis each play a different role, but both are important for solving problems in a company. Research helps you understand the basics and explore options. Diagnosis looks closely at the specific issue. Together, they create a solid way to find, understand, and fix tough challenges.
Phase 1: Leveraging Research for General Knowledge and Context
Business research is a systematic investigation into a particular area. It aims to discover facts, develop new understanding, or create products or services. The main goal is to generate information that informs strategies, products, and operations.
How companies use Research to solve problems:
- Market Research for Product-Market Fit:
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- Problem: A new product isn’t selling as expected.
- Research Approach: Conduct extensive market research. This could involve surveys, focus groups, competitive analysis, and trend forecasting.
- Outcome: Discovering that the target audience finds the pricing too high, the features confusing, or that a competitor offers a similar solution with better benefits. This knowledge suggests potential avenues for diagnosing and solving problems.
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- User Experience (UX) Research for Product Adoption:
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- Problem: Users are abandoning a key feature in an application.
- UX research encompasses usability testing, user interviews, and the analysis of user behavior data, including heatmaps and session recordings.
- Outcome: Gaining general insights into user mental models, pain points, and preferences across the user base. This helps establish norms and identify potential areas of friction that may contribute to the abandonment of the specific feature.
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- Competitive Analysis for Strategic Positioning:
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- Problem: Losing market share to a competitor.
- Research Approach: Conduct a comprehensive analysis of competitor strategies, product offerings, pricing, marketing tactics, and customer reviews.
- This research provides industry benchmarks and best practices, helping you see where competitors are strong or weak. This context is key to understanding why your business might be underperforming.
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- Technological Research for Innovation:
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- Problem: Outdated technology hinders efficiency and product capabilities.
- Research Approach: Investigate emerging technologies, assess their capabilities, costs, and integration challenges.
- The research helps you fully understand new technology’s limits and costs. This information sets the stage for diagnosing technical problems and finding solutions.
Phase 2: Employing Diagnosis to Pinpoint the Specific Problem
Diagnosis uses what you’ve learned from research to focus on a specific problem in the company. The goal is to discover precisely what’s wrong and why, so you can take the right action.
How companies use Diagnosis to solve problems:
- Product Problem: Feature Non-Adoption
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- Research Context: UX research has shown that users value ease of use and clear instructions.
- For diagnosis, run A/B tests on the feature’s onboarding flow. Analyze detailed analytics data for just that feature—interview users who abandoned it. Use the ‘5 Whys,’ focusing strictly on the feature’s non-adoption.
- Outcome: Despite the feature’s usefulness, diagnose a confusing button label and a missing visual cue as specific problems.
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- Business Problem: Declining Sales in a Specific Region
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- Research Context: Market research has revealed a general shift in the market towards online purchasing and personalized services.
- Analyze region-specific sales data. Focus on product lines, sales channels, customer groups, and competitive activities. Interview the region’s sales teams and customers.
- Outcome: Pinpoint a strong local competitor’s superior online experience as the cause behind the regional sales decline.
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- Operational Problem: Recurring Production Delays
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- Research Context: Industry research on lean manufacturing identified best practices for supply chain management.
- Map the production process step by step with a flowchart. Conduct time-motion studies at each stage. Analyze past data on delay points. Use Fault Tree Analysis to find recurring bottlenecks.
- Outcome: Identify a frequently failing machine, due to poor maintenance, as the cause of production line delays.
The Synergy: Research Guides, Diagnosis Confirms
The real strength lies in combining both approaches.
- Research gives context and helps you form ideas about what might happen. It shows you the big picture and points you in the right direction. This knowledge is the foundation for diagnosis and solutions.
- Diagnosis checks these ideas and finds the real cause. It turns broad research into a clear understanding of the problem.
Without research, diagnosis can be too narrow and may miss new trends or creative solutions. Without diagnosis, research stays theoretical and may not lead to real answers for urgent problems.
Conclusion
By using both research and diagnosis, companies can shift from just reacting to problems to growing in a planned way. This approach leads to solutions that last and give a real advantage, not just temporary fixes.
Thanks for your time. I know it’s valuable.
Jim Zitek
I Turn Complex Product Problems into Successful Solutions
With a Competitive Advantage
