With the fast-paced and ever-changing competitive landscape, e-commerce marketers have to be problem-solvers if they are going to survive and thrive. In my consulting practice, however, I see an all-too-common tendency toward what I call "jumping to solutions." In their desire to get the "real work" of implementing solutions, e-commerce marketers often skip the critical diagnostic or problem-identification phase of true problem-solving-and in the process, they fail to identify the right problems in the first place.
In one recent situation, for example, a client came to me for advice on how to structure his site to increase conversion rates. He was not generating the profits he wanted and concluded that something must be wrong with the site and it needed to be fixed. From my perspective, this was a big, risky leap from symptom to solution. As you may imagine, the right problem had very little to do with the site. But had we not taken a step back and spent time on proper diagnosis, the client could have wasted a lot of time and resources implementing solutions to the wrong problem.
Does This Scenario Seem All-Too-Familiar?
I'm sure that many readers are familiar with how this tension typically plays out in an e-commerce company. Maybe profits or revenues are not meeting projections and a meeting is combined together to discuss solutions. In this brainstorming session, a number of possible solutions are generated and the group then decides which solutions to implement first. See the jump from symptom to solution? In this common scenario, very little time is spent actually drilling-down to identify the most-likely root-cause to the performance symptom so that the solutions actually address the right problems.
When e-commerce companies fail to identify the right problems, the effects can be disastrous. Right or wrong, implementing solutions of any kind usually requires time and money. When focused on the wrong problems, these limited resources are effectively squandered. There's also a significant opportunity cost-while the wrong problems are being solved, the right problems are still sapping away business that could've otherwise been captured. And the real problem will still exist after all the so-called solutions have been implemented-so marketers often go through all this time, effort, and expense only to find that results do not improve all that much.
To ensure that you are focusing your efforts wisely, proper diagnosis is critical. Proper diagnosis is all about identifying the right problems to solve before jumping to solutions. It's about spending the necessary time to really get to the heart of the matter. It's very much like playing doctor.
When you convey your symptoms to a good doctor, he or she will not immediately jump to a conclusion about the cause and hand you a prescription. Rather, a good doctor will use those symptoms as just a starting point to guide them in the direction of the right problem. By digging deeper, they often find a cause that is not readily apparent. Had the doctor immediately acted upon the initial symptoms to prescribe a solution, the results could be hazardous to your health.
Similarly, in e-commerce the outward performance symptoms may have root-causes that are not readily apparent. Because e-commerce is an inter-connected system where each element impacts each other element, symptoms that show up on one place may actually have their roots in a seemingly unrelated area.
Playing Doctor in Your E-commerce Business
Leveraging proper diagnosis in your business requires a commitment to really drilling-down and identifying the "right problems" before entertaining possible solutions. It requires that you understand the systemic nature of e-commerce-how everything is inter-connected and how problems in one area can cause symptoms in another. It requires a shift in mindset and emphasis from "implementing solutions" to "identifying the right problems."
Instead of spending an hour in a conference room brainstorming solutions to performance symptoms, spend at least half that hour brainstorming possible causes before jumping into solutions. At first, this can be tough for teams to do because they are so accredited to jumping to solutions. Once people get the hang of it, this perspective becomes second-nature and part of their day-to-day decision-making processes.
Never understimate the power of the simple question, "Why?" Whenever you're presented with a symptom or a possible root-cause, simply ask "Why?" Asking it a number of times in a drilldown fashion can be extremely revealing.
Not Necessarily Easier, Just a Whole Lot Better
Using diagnostic processes to identify the right problems will not automatically make everything easier, but it will make everything far more productive. Through proper diagnosis, you're not only able to focus your limited resources where they'll produce the most bang for the buck; you'll also be able to reclaim potentially significant lost-opportunity costs. In the process, you can minimize the jumping from one solution to another, to another, hiring something works, and driving you and your staff crazy.
So give yourself permission to "play doctor" in your e-commerce business; identify the right problems; and execute truly meaningful solutions.