There was a joke on the Internet that a man saved a cat's life. In order to repay this man for saving his life, the kitten gave him a dead mouse every day. The cat's behavior of repaying kindness is certainly quite touching, but it must be said that what the cat has tried its best to provide is not what the benefactor wants, and even brings unnecessary trouble to people.

that's what happens when you don't understand the needs and act in a hurry. In fact, there are similar situations in our daily work and life. For example, we spent a lot of time in the workplace, working overtime and staying up late to produce a report that the boss wanted, which was beautifully typeset and had clear paragraphs, but the boss read it and said, "This is not what I want." For example, in life, you chase girls, buy flowers, and invite people to watch movies and eat, but girls always ignore you. As a result, another boy doesn't spend much money, and the girl agrees to be their girlfriend. You are angry, ask a girl for a reason, "Why did you choose him instead of me? I am so good to you? Why? "(here is a growling expression) People only reply," You don't understand me at all, and you don't know what I want ". You want to cry without tears.

There are many people like this who only think from their own point of view and try to solve the problem. However, this practice can't really solve the problem. So how to really solve the problem? "Restart-Problem Solving to Break the Limitation of Thinking" gives its own plan, that is, when solving a problem, we should not only start from our own standpoint, but also consider the needs of the other side, and find out the overlap point of the needs of both sides through analysis, which is an indispensable key step to solve the problem.

The author of Restart is Naoki Sakata. His career started from the marketing department of Unilever, and he accumulated rich practical experience in marketing and sales. Later, he became a consultant to provide market support for other enterprises, and then created a * * * innovation platform where everyone can participate in enterprise planning meetings, with the aim of eliminating the differences between enterprises and consumers and realizing direct communication between enterprises and consumers.

The author is experienced from practice, so Restart doesn't write profound theories, but summarizes his own practical experience and shares cases. He can read one problem-solving case after another like a story, which is easy to understand but thought-provoking.

The problem solving method given in Restart is divided into three steps:

1. Find the problem that really bothers the other party;

2. Know your own ability and potential;

3. Combine each other's problems with their own abilities to find ways to solve them.

The purpose of finding the real problem of the other party is to find the real needs of the other party. These needs are either misunderstood. For example, some enterprises often take the means as the purpose, or they are not hidden and undiscovered. What we need to do is:

1. Find the real needs and don't take the means as the purpose.

For example, USJ』 (Universal Studios Japan) is a movie theme park. There is a saying in Japan, "There is Disney in the east.

However, in order to deliberately distinguish it from Disney, it ignores the real needs of customers, such as the movie theme that children can't enjoy themselves, and the dilapidated pirate ship that cost a lot of money to make is rated as shabby by tourists. Since 2111, USJ has been in a continuous downturn, and the number of tourists has decreased instead of increasing.

Later, through market research, USJ found that customers don't pursue "differentiation from Disney", and the aspiration of parents living in this area is "to give children a special experience". Although Disney is good at doing this, there is no Disney in this area. Since customers have this demand, why not meet it? Through strategic adjustment, USJ has met the customers' needs of experiencing Disney-style experience and become a theme park that the whole family enjoys.

differentiation is no longer for the sake of differentiation. By understanding and meeting the real needs of customers, USJ has achieved a great reversal. In 2115, the number of tourists reached 13.9 million, making it the fourth theme park in the world.

There are many case books like this. For example, a vacuum cleaner manufacturer has changed the way of expanding sales by improving the performance of vacuum cleaners, that is, enhancing suction, because this company has positioned itself as liberating people from the boring housework of sweeping the floor. Performance is only a means to liberate the labor force, and it is also one of the means, so a more automated sweeping robot was developed and achieved success.

2. Discover customers' hidden needs

Some customers' needs are hidden under the surface needs, and even many of them are not shown at all. If this hidden demand can be excavated, it is likely that a new market can be developed.

For example, most people used to use toilet paper to clean up after going to the toilet, and there was no problem all the time. However, TOTO clearly put forward the concept that only using toilet paper would leave residue, and developed a washable toilet, which opened up a new market and better met the needs of consumers.

JINS, who entered the glasses industry as a latecomer, found through investigation that most consumers will be tired when they use computers and smart phones for a long time, but the market is full of myopia glasses, there are no glasses that can prevent myopia in advance, and consumers don't know that they need an eye that can prevent myopia. On this basis, JINS launched JINS PC, which can block blue light and prevent eye fatigue, making those consumers who have no problem with their eyes become the consumers of glasses, greatly expanding the market share of glasses.

Due to the lack of understanding of the demand side, many enterprises are begging with golden rice bowls, wasting their resources. What we need to do in this step is to fully mobilize their own potential and resources to better satisfy consumers and get the maximum benefits for themselves.

For example, as early as 2111, the railway company JR East Japan became a station with a daily passenger flow of 16 million. However, because the station is already in a crowded state, it is impossible to further increase revenue by expanding passenger flow.

but what should I do if I need to increase the income of the station?

after analysis, the station found that the passengers passing by here are a huge and valuable resource, and these passengers all have some shopping and catering needs, so in 2115, a large commercial facility was opened at the Dagong station, so that customers can realize their shopping wishes without leaving the station.

through this measure, the passengers of this enterprise have become shopping consumers, further expanding their own turnover. This business model has been widely expanded in both China and Japan.

when your own resources are limited, you can also enjoy the resources by cooperating with your original competitors, and * * * can expand the whole market and win through cooperation.

In Spain, there is a small town, San Sebastian, with a population of only 1.8 million, which is a tourist attraction comparable to Paris, Barcelona and Florence. The way it takes is to build itself into a gourmet city. But the small town is not a city of food at first. Although there are some good restaurants, tourists will not go to such a small city for a specific restaurant. In order to attract tourists, the town enjoys recipes through every restaurant, so that no matter which restaurant here, you can eat delicious dishes.

after discovering the customers' needs and knowing their own abilities, it is easy to make use of the overlap between them and find a solution to the problem. But in this process, it should be noted that sometimes the solution needs to break some common sense.

For example, at present, all employees in the workplace are sitting in office, but this situation leads to many physical problems such as low back pain and stiff shoulders. Some enterprises are also trying to solve this problem, such as training employees to sit correctly and exercising after sitting for a long time, but these can't completely solve the problem and affect work efficiency.

A furniture manufacturer named Okamura also realized this business opportunity. They questioned "employees always sit and work" and solved this problem by creating new common sense, that is, developing a lifting desk. When employees are working, they can adjust the height of the desk to achieve standing and sitting. Experiments show that in this way, you can relax your body and relieve fatigue.

The above cases are only a small part. There are 31 cases in the book Restart, which introduces in detail the story of combining one's own abilities, discovering the real needs of customers, and providing solutions to customers by eliminating differences, so as to achieve mutual benefit. Through reading, learning this problem-solving thinking and applying it in your own work and life will greatly improve your problem-solving ability and efficiency, so that you can work and live better.