Types Of Problems

Insight Thinking has been applied to a wide range of problems

1. Unfamiliar or new: When the problem lies in an area where little or nothing is known by people within the organization and often by anyone at all. e.g.:
   •  creating a new market or inventing a completely new business (in an existing or totally new area)
   •  correcting a strategic or marketing failure in a new market or with a new product
   •  reacting to something completely new (without rewriting your whole strategy) that suddenly appears in your and your competition's strategic territory
   
   
2. Recognized as requiring "out-of-the-box" thinking: This is often seen as innovation territory, where either new products are required or existing ways of working need to be completely rethought (beyond incremental improvement). Notable areas where this has been applied:
   •  product development (new and extensions)
   •  marketing campaigns
   •  process redesign
   •  breakout business strategies, especially in mature industries
   
   
3. Persistent or intractable: These are problems that have existed for a long time and have defied several prior attempts to resolve. They are often complex, difficult to define clearly, or are potentially incorrectly defined. A lot of data have previously been acquired, substantial analyses have been carried out, and in the process it has become hard to think about the problem differently. Often, those involved suspect that more data will not help resolve the issue, but that a fresh view is needed. Insight Thinking has been applied to four types of persistent problems:
   •  repeated failure of a seemingly sound strategy
   •  reinvention of a product that has been around for decades and has remained unchanged
   •  marketing conundrums
   •  the inability, even as the segment creator and leader, to find a viable business model
   
   
4. Poorly distinguished: These problems are similar to the "persistent or intractable problems" above, but substantial work has not been done, often because reaching a common view of the problem itself has been elusive.
   
   
5. Contentious or lack alignment: These are problems wherein one or more solutions appear to exist but those involved cannot align around a common view, or a number of diverse views are strongly held.
   
   
6. Urgent and/or expensive: A known problem whose resolution is expected to take a long time, require significant resources, or both, but those inputs are unavailable or unjustified. Recent examples include:
   •  a new strategy is required but the industry time cycle cannot afford a long process (e.g., electronics and software)
   •  capital project execution difficulties (where delaying the project start-up is very expensive)
   •  organization redesign (where the nature of the process is often not enhanced by taking too long)
   
   
7. Uncovering unseen possibilities: There is a sense of an opportunity (or problem) but it is not immediately visible or distinguishable.

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