Most businesses are busy just doing what they do best: providing products or services. They don't have time to step back and uncover their problem, let alone find a solution. Sometimes, in talking with our staff, a business discovers that what they thought they needed is not relevant. For example, one business we visited thought their problem was a bank of files filled with paper that should be digitized. As we talked with them, we realized that in this case, the paper was not the problem - their information was already digitized! What they really needed was a better way to share the information with their customers.

Our company was able to propose a simple web-based application that would allow customers easy access to the information. Customers would go online to search, view, and print the information themselves, with almost zero demand on staff time.

Sure, we could have scanned their documents, re-digitizing what they already had in digital format, and made some money. But this would have left their original problem unsolved -- their customers still would have needed easy access to that information.

Have you encountered situations like these with your customers? How do you communicate with them when you see their problem much differently than they do?