Remember when you were in primary school and your teacher asks
you. Have you understood the problem and after you said yes. Only then she
allows you to do the question. Our teacher realizes there is something more
important than getting the solution to the problem that is “to understand the problem”. That is
how the concept of innovation works someone must understand the problem before
starting to search for the solution. “It's so
much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem.”
Malcolm S. Forbes
If you can’t spend time to understand the problem then it is very
difficult to come up with the solution. The positive solution is the results of
intensive understanding of the problem. Like the famous quote of Albert
Einstein “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend
55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
Regularly we think we understood the problem and we are ready to
jump to the solution that is natural man instincts. Failing to understand the
problem led us to come with solutions to the problems that do not exist. Two
mistakes that we always do; First, we think technology is the solution while
technology is just a tool and second we anticipate people need our solutions
while they need us to understand their problems.
Take an example of someone who wants to develop an online booking
system for local travellers in Tanzania. The fact that people don’t book
tickets when they want to travel in Tanzania can be treated with many aspects.
First, through the hypothesis that the booking system does not exist, second is
an intelligent guess that, in our culture people don’t book when they want to
travel. Simply we don’t have serious holiday seasons and all of those western
methods of travelling and vacations do not apply here. Lastly, technology
infrastructure does not allow an individual to do that. The local
innovator should localize his thought on the problem before coming with the
solution by considering all the possibilities.
On localizing the innovative solutions, reading from the Harvard
Business Review on the article “10 rules on managing global innovation” the author
Keeley Wilson said ” although the challenges may be familiar, the solutions
are not; what works for an innovation project conducted in a single location
doesn’t necessarily work for one dispersed across many sites around the world.
That’s partly because many important enablers of innovation happen naturally in
colocation.
After localizing the solutions to fit the ecosystem, how you can
understand the problem, someone might ask. There is no magic trick in finding
solutions, you should study the problem and do enough fields study on it. If
there was a magic trick then it could be sitting down with the person who faces
the problem and ask him what does she think could be the possible solution and
whether the person consider it to be the problem at all. Sometimes what we
consider to be the problem is not the problem at all.
It’s not easy to be an innovator, you should at least know that.
The late Steve Jobs used to say, Innovation is
what distinguishes between leaders and followers. You can easily understand
why, people they don’t care what you have they care only if what you have tend
to deliver something good and they will be ready to follow you. The coolest
thing about understanding the problem and sharing the same concern with the
users of the solution will always ensure a usable positive solution survive in
the market.
A small study; the local Tanzanian company “Maxicom
Africa with their product Max Malipo” they are doing good. The
only reason behind is that, they were able to collide with people
concerns on solving the problem that they were facing in real time which was wasting
time in queues waiting to pay for basic daily services, like paying for a cable
TV. Who want to stand in the queue for hours while he can just press a button
on his mobile phone and do the payment safely.
From the success story we learnt if the problem is well understood
and if there is real need of a solution then getting users of the solutions you
provide is very easy First understand the problem and second
localize the solution. Getting people using your
solution it means creating client base for your business which will eventually
grow.
On the other hand consider someone who invested millions of money
in creating an app that will teach people about the importance of proper
farming methods while they can’t even afford to put food on the table. Yes
technology is fine; the app looks so cool but never forgets technology is just
a tool. If you can’t use it wisely it’s very difficult to hit your target. Innovation
always works with environment and implements ability. Localizing innovation is cheap and time saving and most of
the time meets requirement of the final users of the solution.
Jumanne R. Mtambalike
Trainee Manager
Buni Innovation Space (COSTECH)