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Tag Archives: problem solving

Newsletter #1019: The “Solve a Problem” Issue

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] Solving a problem can be much easier than marketing something new. When you start with a problem, you start with a […]

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Newsletter #1006: The “Problem Solved” Issue

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] Every once in a while, a product comes along that solves an issue everyone understands in a way that no one’s […]

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Newsletter #988: The “You’re Looking at the Problem Wrong” Issue

[Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] Ideas that make other people say “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that!” don’t come from rocket scientists. They come from […]

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How many perspectives do you have

Problems always get easier when you look at them in more than one way.  If you and your coworkers think alike, you’re going to miss things that are obvious to folks with other backgrounds. Example: My engineer father-in-law sorted out all these puzzle pieces by shape. I would have done color.  Who is missing from […]

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A good management philosophy from the Marine Corps

4 UNIVERSAL TENETS OF MARINE CORPS PROBLEM SOLVING (From this great article in Fast Company by E.B. Boyd, with great photography too.) 1. EMBRACE THE 70% SOLUTION If there’s 70% confidence, Marines make those choices…now. “Between a good decision now and a great decision later, you choose the good decision now,” says Capt. Jake Owens. […]

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There’s always a better answer than “I’ll go find your waiter.”

What do you do when a customer hands you a problem that isn’t your responsibility? Do you: a) hand it off to someone else? b) step up and make it right? Great employees are eager to own a problem and get it fixed. They want to make a customer happy. Great companies build systems to […]

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How about a quick call?

Go to the Whole Foods contact form on their website and you see this message: Great idea! You job is to make your customers happy. If you can do that faster on the phone — then get them on the phone. It’s always a good idea to help your customer get better help.

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Everything is going to be OK

Sure, we’ve got a ton of problems. Economy, environment, energy, etc. But we’re getting better and better at solving them … and technology is advancing faster than the problems. Watch this great video featuring futurist Ray Kurzweil. You’ll feel better.

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