Chapter 12 Section 11: Mining needs and "problem blindness" (1)

For example, an example I often tell of a young girl moving house.The girl had some big pieces of furniture to move to the new apartment, but the girl didn't know how to move those big things on her own.At a loss, she caught a glimpse of a case of wine in the apartment, left over from a party a few weeks ago.The girl had an idea, and there it is!She logged on to Craigslist, a community forum, and posted a message on it saying: A case of wine will be given to anyone who can carry my furniture across the Bay Bridge.A few hours later, the girl removed all the furniture.The box of wine used to be just lying in the corner to collect ashes, but now it has become a valuable "currency".Of course, it doesn't mean that the wine really turned into money, but the immediate difficulties gave the girl the ability and motivation, and she saw the monetary value of those leftover wines.

Mining needs and "problem blindness" There is no limit to the difficulty of problems that people can solve. In fact, most of the projects in the creative competition are aimed at creating "social value", that is, students use the competition as an opportunity to solve major social issues, such as energy saving, encouraging fitness, providing community assistance to disabled children, etc. . The first step in solving a problem is to find the problem.In the field of product design, finding problems is called "requirements mining", and it is a skill that can be learned and mastered.In fact, it's a required course for graduate students in Stanford's Biodesign Program.Graduate students in the program, who previously majored in engineering, medicine or business, spend a year together identifying significant medical needs and designing products to address those needs.The BioDesign Program is run by Paul Yock, a cardiologist, inventor and entrepreneur.According to Paul, "A well-analyzed need is like the DNA of an invention." In other words, as long as the problem is clearly defined, the solution will emerge naturally.

Graduate students in the "Biodesign Program" will spend three months following doctors around, trying to figure out problems that doctors may encounter.They observe carefully and talk to everyone involved—doctors, nurses, patients, and hospital administrators—to identify areas for improvement.In order to find the biggest problem they could find, they cut down the hundreds of requirements listed to a few. When the biggest problem was finally determined and the challenge was finalized, the graduate students began to design products and quickly build A model with multiple solutions.After a period of repeated research and development, they come up with the concept of a new product and show it to the relevant people to see if the new product meets their needs.