The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

What’s wrong with it?

One excellent method for identifying unmet needs is to ask yourself what’s wrong with your product or service from the customer’s perspective. Most of the time we tend to focus on all the good things about our company’s offerings. We are biased toward the positives, rather than the negatives. Marketing and salespeople in particular are usually well versed in all the relevant features, benefits, and unique selling propositions that add up to make your widgets the very best choice for the customer. But just for a change, try thinking about the annoyances, frustrations, or inconveniences your customers might be experiencing when dealing with your company, or when buying or using your products and services. Where are the customer “pain points”—in your business model, and across your industry? What if you could solve these irritations in a way that would significantly improve the customer experience, making life easier, more convenient, and more enjoyable for the people you are serving?

For example, what’s wrong with carbonated soda, potato chips, ice cream, chocolate, and beer? Most of us love to consume these popular products, but on the other hand we probably ...