Solutions as a Service
On The Dangers Of Being A Consultant Without Knowing You Are A Consultant
At some point in history, thousands of years ago, the first human problem ever took place. It could have been a pack of hungry predators slowly encircling a hunter. Could have been slippery prey consistently avoiding a trap, a strong and deep river to be crossed, or an approaching storm. The primogenial, original ‘uh-oh’ moment. We’ve been dealing with problems since our beginning as humanity, forcefully leading us to deploy all our ingenuity to overcome them. Nothing indicates we will stop facing problems any time soon.
Succinctly, a problem is a situation or matter regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome. Dealing with a problem means finding a solution for it.
Problems and needs are not exactly synonyms, although both share the fact that they must be addressed sooner or later. A storm approaching when we don’t have any protection is a problem. The storm sparks the need for shelter. On the other hand, a need is more of an unfulfilled desire which, if unfulfilled for too long, can become a problem. Being a bit thirsty is a need we almost mindlessly address by getting a glass of water. Not a problem. Being thirsty for days is. The interdependency is definitely there. Problems create needs. Unaddressed needs create problems.
Nothing too revealing so far. I bet we all can think of a current problem in our lives, smaller or bigger, if we stop for a second to think about it. We face problems of all kinds during our lifetimes: financial, social, sentimental, professional, medical, technical, among other kinds. Some of these—actually, many of them—pose interesting business cases for those willing to provide solutions to such problems. But our problems are very particular to ourselves. Not two persons have the same kind of problems, not two companies or organizations have the same kind of problems. They may look like they do from a coarse distance, but as soon as you zoom in, the problems they face are different animals.
To add to the confusion, the term “solution” has been somewhat abused in the last several years. Everyone seems to be offering “solutions”. Everyone is a one stop solution provider these days. Agh.
In reality, what every so-called “solution provider” out there is saying between lines is that, whatever they do, it can't be straightforwardly applied to whoever buys that thing but, in fact, needs lots of handholding to make it happen. Where did we stop appreciating the fact customers can buy our stuff and go use it with little or none of our involvement? When did we stop caring about making things intuitive? When did we start shrinking space on our websites from our products in favor of vague, one-size-fits-all “solutions” menus and pages which say basically nothing?
Picture a therapist offering marital counseling to couples whose marriages are falling apart. Imagine this therapist marketing herself on her website as a “one-stop solution provider”?
Would you buy that? Wouldn’t it sound a bit too close to those charlatans who promise to bring your loved one closer to you by doing some voodoo?
Not two couples in the world face the same issues. Therefore, no canned “solution” can be applied. No “one stop”, nor two stops, or three stops. Marital counseling may or may not work, but it shall require diving into the issues, the context, and help patients work out a solution that ultimately will be their achievement and not the therapist’s. Mind that the solution may very well be divorce.
That’s the core nature of solutions in a nutshell: because problems are unique, solutions are equally unique. Are you a solutions provider you say? Then you are either a ‘therapist’, or a consultant, to your customers guiding them to solve something overly specific using your counterintuitive products, or a charlatan doing voodoo.
“One stop” my ass.