NextStage's Joseph Carrabis shows how fixing problems with your creative design can create new problems, unless you know the right questions to ask.
I had an interesting experience in our NextStage offices recently. A co-worker and I came up with completely different and equally valid solutions to the same problem. What was interesting was that I never would have conceived of the alternative solution. It got me to thinking: why are some solutions so obvious that we just act upon them while other equally good solutions never come into consciousness?
Let me give you some examples of the kinds of problems you're likely to run into, especially in web design and marketing:
-
How do you get people to reveal themselves to you online without having them fill in a form?
-
How do you get visitors to complete a conversion process once they started?
-
How do you really know if a visitor is qualified or not?
I'm going to cover these and several other genuinely difficult issues in website and marketing design in the coming columns. Prior to that, we need to understand why problems exist and figure out what really needs to be solved.
Problems of planning
Say you come up with an idea for something. In your mind, the idea is perfectly executed and there are no problems. You take this idea and make it real. There's a delta between what your idea originally was and what you wound up making, and that's where some problems exist -- that delta between thought and action.
Many times this delta occurs because the execution wasn't thought through well enough or clearly enough. Maybe all the factors weren't taken into account so the planning fell short of the actual requirements.
Problems of process
At other times, how things are made isn't optimal. You needed cement screws and anchors and used fine drywall screws instead when you attached the handrail to your concrete steps. The delta here was a failure in the development (or manufacturing) process that led to a problem down the road.
Problems in balance
The deltas that arise in solving both planning and process problems are due to what I call "balance," and thus begins one of my little Zen moments, so bear with me: it'll all be obvious by the time we're done.
A problem occurs. Let's call that problem "A." You solve A and implement a solution. You do such a good job that your idea for a solution and the actual physical solution match completely. There is no delta. A is completely and utterly solved, and no one can argue with the fact.
Two seconds later Pip! another problem, "B," shows up. In fact, you can directly attribute B's existence to the totally accurate and complete solution you implemented for A.
Dang. What happened?
What happened was that you've encountered a balance point. "A" occurred where and when it did because of something so far removed from any obvious solution that any obvious solution didn't address what caused A in the first place. Doctors often talk of this as "Cure the disease, not the symptom." You cured A, not the disease that caused A. Let me give you an example.
You've designed a product path on your website. This product path leads the visitor through a series of pages which (you hope) end in the visitor making a purchase. Let's say the product path is four pages long and visitors bail out on page two of four.
You are wise in the ways of the web and in site design so you fix page two. Now people bail out on page three.
Maybe the problem wasn't with page two at all. Maybe page two was just where visitors bailed. Maybe they psychologically bailed on page one but didn't physically bail until page two. Now you've fixed page two. Good work, you got them one page further along and you still haven't addressed the real problem, which was page one of the four.
This is a balance point. You solved what you thought was the problem only to have another problem emerge.
Removing balance points
You can solve problems at the level at which they exist. This was explained above and usually leads to a new and different problem at the same level. You can also solve problems by understanding the true nature, or source, of the problem. Doing so often allows you to discover that the source of the problem exists at a different level than is obvious.
Investigating problems on different levels is called "chunking" in neuro- and psycho-linguistics.
Forest for the Trees
Some readers will recognize this column is a variation of the "Maslow's Hammer" theme I discussed a few columns back. The "Maslow's Hammer" column discussed using the right tools to perform a task. Here we're discussing knowing which task -- or problem -- needs to be addressed and/or solved.
I strongly believe we need to develop other skills in order to solve problems because our existing skill sets probably created the problems we're attempting to solve. If you're an engineer or designer, those wonderful skills engineered or designed the problem so don't engineer or design your way out of it.
I mentioned up top that I'm going to cover some of the genuinely hard problems of web and marketing design in the next few columns. I'd enjoy learning what problems readers are attempting to solve. I can't make any promises, but I will tackle any problems which are new and interesting to me and offer the solutions (while protecting the names and occupations of the innocent) here in this column.
The doctor, as they say, is in.
Joseph Carrabis has been everything from butcher to truckdriver to Senior Knowledge Architect to Chief Research Scientist. His 22 books and 225 articles have ranged among cultural anthropology, mathematics, information mechanics, language acquisition, neurolinguistics, psychodynamics and psychosocial modeling -- and other eclectic topics. His knowledge and data designs have been used by Caltech, Citibank, DOD, IBM, NASA, Owens-Corning and Smith-Barney among others. Carrabis is CRO and Founder of NextStage Evolution and NextStage Global, and founder of KnowledgeNH and NH Business Development Network. He's inventor and developer of Evolution Technology and can be reached at. Joseph will be speaking at the Sept 05 MCAN management meeting in Baltimore on "Six Web Techniques that Get New Business." Come on by and introduce yourself. You can download sections of Carrabis' next book, "Reading Virtual Minds," at www.hungrypeasant.com.
Joseph invites readers to email him to discuss whether the problem solving method outlined here is more male or female dominant, and why.