Biggest Innovations Never Solved Any Problem

take a completely new approach
Biggest Product Innovations:
Never Solved AnyProblem!
© image:flickr.com/hknuthia
15, August 2011
pj | pj@beingpractical.com | www.beingpractical.com

There are 1000s of companies & products around us!
And there are companies that
STAND OUT
www.beingpractical.com pj@beingpractical.com
copyright: beingpractical.com

Being Practical: Biggest Innovations never solved any pain!
#1 two types of products or companies
Problem Solvers – What consumer pain do you solve?
- Looks to solve problems or consumer pain points in existing markets
- Well defined addressable market; or category; or vertical; or geography
- Problem Solvers are good executioners; experienced in the Domain
Market Creators – How do you approach a Market?
- Do not look at existing problems, but a new approach to market
- Focus is NOT: the Problem; Opportunity; Market Size
- Focus is: The Approach; the Vision; the Future
- Problem Solvers are Innovators; Visionaries; the Un-usuals, (In most cases they do not belong to the industry!)

#2 Market Creators are
Disruptive, Innovative, Pioneers, Revolutionary – Much ahead of time!
Not usual Mn dollar market sizes; But potential Billion dollar opportunities
People talk about these companies, give examples of them!
They are too big to be part of any ecosystem; Eventually build own ecosystem.

examples of such products / companies!
Examples of Problem Solvers
I don’t remember any right now! Neither will you.
Almost 999 out of 1000 companies are problem solvers; yet we don’t really remember them!
Examples of Market Creators
We remember and give examples only about Market Creators!

The Walkman!
Launched: July 1, 1979
Walkman did not solveany problem!
World did not complain that it needs a
portable music player
Inventor of walkman did not belong to music industry
Andreas Pavel invented Stereobeltthe first personal stereo audio cassette player. Sony used the brand name “Walkman” for portable music player.
The Walkman revolutionized the Music Industry. It changed the music listening habits of people by allowing them to carrying Music on the go.
The Effect:

Online Shopping
Founded: 1994
Amazon did not solveany problem.
World did not complain about lack of online shopping. Consumers were happy shopping for ages.
Jeff Bezosdid not belong to retail industry before he founded amazon.com
Jeff Bezosworked with D E Shaw & Co prior to founding Amazon.
Valued over $100 Bn Amazon popularized Online Shopping & still leads the curve worldwide; 100s of Amazon wannabe come up everyday.
The Effect:

Web Search
Founded: January 1996
Google did not solveany problem.
World never realized it needed a powerful and reliable search engine. Search was on no one’s mind.
Larry Page and Sergey Brindid not work with any Internet company before founding Google.
Larry & Sergey were PhD students in Stanford. They started Google as a research project.
Google is the biggest Internet company in the world. There is a bit of Google in our everyday life. It changed the way we discover information.
The Effect:

Portable Media Player
Launched: October 2001
iPod did not solveany problem.
World did not complain they wanted a better music player before iPod hit the market
Steve Jobs or Apple were not related to music industry before they launched the iPod.
Steve Jobs & Apple built Macintosh desktops and MacBooks while iPod was launched.
With over 314+ Million iPods sold till date – It is the most popular Music Player in our history. Today, Digital Music Player = iPod.
The Effect:

Social Networking
Founded: February 2004
Facebook never solvedany consumer problem.
Users never asked for a Social Network to communicate with existing friends. Others thought people want to meet new people.
Mark Zuckdid not work with any Internet Company before he started working on Facebook.
Just everyone knows about Mark Zuckerberg!
Facebook reportedly is reaching close to a $100 Billion valuation. Everyone, just everyone is under the Facebook effect!
The Effect:

Online Videos
Founded: February 2005
YouTube never solvedany problem.
Consumers never complained they wanted online service for viewing and sharing videos.
YouTube founders did not belong to entertainment industry before they started.
Chad Hurley, Steve Chan and Jawed Karimworked with Paypal priorto founding YouTube.
YouTube was acquired by Google. Today, if it’s a video – it has to be on YouTube. It continues to dominate how we consume video content.
The Effect:

Digital Maps
Launched: February 2005
Google Maps did not solve any consumer problem.
No one in world complained about lack of digital maps that can be accessed over computer.
Google did not work on any geospatial or GIS products before launching Google Maps & Earth.
Google was the largest search engine when they introduced Maps. Something different from what people expected from Google.
Google Maps are everywhere. In all location based products, directions and so much more. Google Maps made paper based Maps obsolete.
The Effect:

Micro blogging
Launched: March 2006
Twitter did not solveany consumer problem.
No one thought that they wanted an online tool just to keep saying – what is on their mind.
Twitter founders created Twitter as a side project which eventually became a company later.
Jack Dorsey introduced Twitter as in idea for user to communicate through SMS to a small group of people.
Twitter changed the definition of open communication & freedom over internet. The way we discover news and information changed post Twitter.
The Effect:

Cloud Computing
Launched: July 2006
Cloud Computing never solvedany consumer problem.
Users never demanded or thought about a cloud computing platform to support their technology infrastructure.
Jeff Bezos and Amazon were not in business of hosting, hosted services & storage before AWS
Amazon introduced the world to technology on demand and a new wave of cloud computing wave followed post Amazon AWS.
Cloud Computing and on-demand infrastructure led towards a whole new surge amongst startups and new online businesses.
The Effect:

Apple iPhone
Launched: January 2007
Apple iPhonenever solvedany consumer problem.
Users were happy with existing smartphones. No complained about need of a new phone
Steve Jobs & Apple had no experience in Mobile Hardware before launching iPhone
Apple built Mac computers and iPods before the launch of iPhone
iPhone revolutionized the smart phone market with over 125 Mn devices sold. Pushed others for innovation beyond the obvious., still catching up!
The Effect:

Social Gaming
Launched: January 2007
Zyngadid not solveany consumer problem.
No one complained they want to play online games with their friends.
Mark Pincus was the one to realize that as kids we played games together, while most games on Internet then were about playing alone.
Mark Pincuswas a serial entrepreneur; worked with a venture capital and financial services company before starting with Zynga.
Zynga made the world play. Farmville, CityVille, Mafia Wars, today are amongst the most popular games in the world.
The Effect:

Kindle eBook Reader
Launched: November 2007
Kindle did not solve any consumer problem.
Users were happy with reading physical books. No one spoke about the need for a digital eBook and its reader.
Jeff Bezos and Amazon owned the largest bookstore of the world before introducing Kindle.
Amazon changed the way people read books and brought instant fulfillment for book lovers.
First Kindle was sold out in less than 6 hrs. Amazon has reportedly sold over 3Mn Kindles & selling more books on Kindle than physical format.
The Effect:

Home Rentals
Launched: August 2008
Airbnbdid not solveany consumer problem.
No one thought they wanted to look for Home Rentals or paid Home stays while out on vacations.
Airbnb founders were not part of hospitality industry before they founded the company.
Brain Chesky was in to Industrial Design, Joe Gebbia in to consumer design and Nathan with Microsoft.
Airbnb now has over 100,000 listings from over 16,000 cities across 186 countries. Early days, but it is proving to be tough competition for Hotels.
The Effect:

Location based check-ins
Launched: March 2009
Foursquare did not solveany consumer problem.
No one in the world told Foursquare that they wanted a check-in service to tell people about their location.
Dennis Crowley was founder of Dodgeballwhich was acquired by Google, but was frustrated with the way Google handled the product post acquisition
Dennis obviously saw potential in location based services which Google was not able to.
The world has started to check-in, thanks to Foursquare. Though it is still early days for Foursquare with 10Mn users; the future is promising.
The Effect:

Tablet Device
Launched: April 2010
Apple iPaddid not solveany consumer problem.
No one thought they required a better portable computing device than a laptop or netbook.
Steve Jobs & Apple were manufacturers of Macs, iPods, iPhone before launched of iPad. Tablet devices were revolutionized by advent of iPad.
Steve Jobs while unveiling the iPad mentioned that the then popular Netbooks did not serve purpose of portable internet devices.
iPad made Netbooks obsolete. Post the success of iPad, other manufacturers ventured into tablet devices category, Apple leads the run.
The Effect:

Biggest innovations, products & companies never solved any consumer pain or problem!
They looked at industry with a radically different approach!

“Think Different!”
the award winning slogan created by TBWA for Apple.
#thank-you
Follow me on twitter.com/beingpractical
This post is result of my discussion with AnupamMittal, Founder & CEO of People Group (entrepreneur behind Shaadi.com) - Did Google or Facebook solve any Consumer Problem?
Note: All thoughts, concepts mentioned and views expressed are made in personal capacity.
All brands mentioned here owned by respective owners.

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Biggest Innovations Never Solved Any Problem

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