Bottom Line Up Front: With COVID-19 forcing rapid change, the “˜first principles’ approach to problem-solving is the tool your business needs now. The world’s most successful business leaders have had it in their arsenal for years — we break down why below.
These days, everything is changing. Rapidly.
Schools are hustling to redefine their education practices. Policymakers are hustling to develop regulations that’ll keep us safe without destroying economic stability. And businesses are hustling to… well, keep up. Even high-profile business owners like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have had to get crafty.
With the new regulations and norms. With the new needs and fears. With the new overall way of life.
If you’re stuck thinking that your business model — the one you’ve been using successfully for years — somehow no longer fits with today’s consumer needs, you’re not alone. Millions of businesses all over the country, from restaurants to gyms, theaters to retail — and yes, even apparel decorators — are going through it with you.
But the worst thing you could do for your business right now is ignore the problem. Pretend that everything is as it always was, and not adapt to the changing world.
Your business needs you to take action — to think critically about the problem and come up with smart, creative solutions. The mental strategy we’re about to explain, created by ancient leaders in philosophical thinking, can help you do that.
We promise: this isn’t just a baseless abstract thinking prompt.
What it is is a pragmatic, structured approach to identifying the problem, breaking it apart, and strategizing ways to attack the underlying issue — rather than just the ancillary details.
Intrigued? Good. Let’s dive in.
The Basics
First-principles is a way of thinking that was first given a name by Aristotle (yes, that Aristotle) a couple of thousand years ago. The premise is simple: you break something down until you can see its fundamental truths, and then you reason up from there. In business, that thing tends to be a problem.
Take Elon Musk, for example — he’s actually a passionate practitioner of the first principles mindset. He was looking to acquire a spaceship for a SpaceX program, but none of the spaceships he asked after, including the old ones laying around in Russia, were within his budget.
He took the problem — not being able to afford a spaceship — and he broke it down. The root of the problem was that he needed a spaceship and didn’t have one. With that as his jumping-off point, his team got to work — and they found out that the cost of building a spaceship from scratch would actually be cheaper than buying one used. Alas: the solution.
This way of thinking can be applied to anything, and it usually brings up some pretty innovative results. Why? Because when you’re not limiting yourself to preconceived notions of what the process should look like, and you’re not obsessing over the minutiae of the issue, you’re actually freeing yourself up to think creatively.
Let’s look at an industry-specific example: if most of your typical orders come from schools and teams that are no longer physically in session, they’re probably not ordering like they used to.
With first principles, instead of trying to market the same products to their changed needs, the first step is to break down the problem so that you can approach it with a different perspective.
We’ll take this example through the step-by-step process of thinking with a first-principles mindset below.
Step 1: Finding Problem
This is, quite obviously, your first step. Take a minute and think about the problems you’re facing as a business — there might be a glaring one, or there might be a few that aren’t as obvious. In either case, sit with the question(s) — and ask yourself whether they’re important, urgent, and solvable.
If only one is, that’s the problem you want to focus on. If all of them are, then pick the one that’s the most pressing right now — you may find that by solving that one first, you’ll have unintentionally solved a couple of the others, too.
Our problem, in the case of the example, is that schools and teams aren’t ordering like they used to.
Step 2: Clarifying Problem
This step is where the breakdown begins. You take the problem — less orders from schools/teams — and you look at the big picture.
Here are some questions that can help you do that:
Why is the problem actually a problem? Because without those orders, we’re turning significantly less profit, and our business becomes unsustainable without new customers/revenue streams.
What caused the problem? The pandemic — schools aren’t operating as usual, teams aren’t allowed to play, and there are no pep-rally style gatherings, events, or games.
Who’s affected by the problem? Every facet of the business. If we’re not operating as we usually are, filling the same number of orders, then it’s difficult to pay staff/vendors/bills and things will have to be adjusted.
How do customers view the problem? It doesn’t affect them — because they don’t need the spirit wear. And we don’t currently have anything on offer that they do need.
That takes us to…
Step 3: Breaking Down Problem
Here is where we really start dismantling the lego blocks of the problem. You want to be asking questions like, what is the essential part of the problem? What happens if we ignore the problem? What happens if we act on the problem?
This step gives you the power to throw out the details and look solely at the foundation. At the fundamental truths.
When we do that with our example, the problem changes from “schools and teams not placing orders” to “the business can’t sustain itself with the current demand from customers.”
That then turns the possible solutions from ideas like, well, how do we better market to schools and teams? to hm, what other products can we offer for existing demand? Or, how can we create demand for products we already have?
That kind of big-picture thinking is how you achieve innovative results — which is exactly why guys like Elon Musk and Reed Hastings (Netflix’s CEO) are such huge proponents of it.
It’s pretty clear with this example, and with most urgent problems, that ignoring the issue won’t result in any positive — or even stable — outcomes.
Sure, acting on the problem will inevitably bring risk, but innovative action always does. And if you know that staying the same equals guaranteed loss, isn’t it imperative you try something new?
Step 4: Solving Problem
This one’s pretty self-explanatory, but it’s also a big gun in the process. It’s where you take the fundamental truths of the problem and you start to brainstorm possible fixes.
If you’re the apparel decorator in the example, this is where you start looking at your business’s capabilities.
If you’re trying to supply a demand that’s already there, what kind of products can you relatively easily add to your offerings? Maybe it’s retail signage, like we’ve seen these guys do. Or maybe it’s branded “˜health and wellness’ promo products, like hand sanitizer and thermometers. Or maybe it’s face masks.
You already know what the people around you are looking for. So be proactive and find a way to give it to them.
On the other hand, you might be trying to create demand for products you already have on offer. How? Think creatively here.
Maybe you’re encouraging schools and teams to throw “˜pep rally’ style events virtually so that they’ll have a reason to don spirit wear. They’ll feel that strong sense of community, and you’ll get your orders in. Or maybe you’re taking this time to focus on your digital presence. If people are seeing awesome products that their Instagram/Facebook peers are “˜liking’ and buying into, they’ll be more inclined to buy in too.
People are looking for joy — and for ease — in these times. If you can find ways to give them a feeling of community and give it to them easily (through e-commerce), then they’ll want more of it. And that demand will grow.
Step 5: Question The Questions
This is the devil’s advocate portion of the process, where you look at the solutions you’ve come up with and you question them. Hard.
To do this, you go back to square one of the drawing board: you question the problem, the fundamental truths, and the answers you’ve come up with. Was the process sound? Are you confident in your breakdown of the problem? Are you confident that your solutions have a high chance of achieving the results you’re looking for?
When you are, that’s how you know it’s time to act. And with this way of thinking, those actions will likely be far more innovative — and more effective — than your instinctive solutions would’ve been.
First Principles And You
It might seem like a long, winding, time-consuming process, but the truth is, this way of thinking delivers on results. Especially when you need to approach a big, urgent problem with a new perspective.
First Principles gives you that perspective. It invites you to think things through critically, objectively, and creatively — and it doesn’t require any expensive tools or extensive manpower to do it. Just you, your brain, and your business. (And a couple of other brains added to the mix never hurt.)
Some solutions you’ve read here — or maybe some that you’ll come up with on your own — might seem too far-fetched. But we want you to remember that anything is possible if you have a willingness to adapt — and if you have the right technology behind you.
InkSoft tools like Designer and Stores make it easy for you to navigate every step of the e-commerce process, from designing new products all the way through to delivering them. And our technology isn’t just easy for you to use — it’s accessible to your customer base, too.
So we’ll leave you with this: it might be a new world out there, but you have the mental — and the physical — tools you need to adapt to it.
Don’t just sit back and try to wait out the storm. Get to problem-solving.
We can’t wait to see what you come up with.
