Business is just problem solving

Businesses exist to, and succeed by, solving customer problems.

When you strip back all the fancy frameworks and five year plans, that’s really all there is to it.

Yet I meet a surprising amount of resistance to this viewpoint. Recent clients have told me:

• “I only wanted to make good food” (because there was a gap in their market)

• “I was just bored of boring stationary” (their sales would suggest they weren’t the only one)

• “My coaching is only one of the ways they could get help” (doesn’t every problem have multiple solutions?)

Often we associate ‘problem solving’ with corporate crisis and popular pain points. But customers are buying into solutions not products. So whether that solution is practical, emotional, or social, on an international or local scale, people are buying into something.

Businesses exist because of unmet needs

This is true whether you’re operating at a macroeconomic level (boosting productivity, reducing waste), or at the micro level of one person buying a coffee.

Generally most people understand this. But most are also quick to identify that unmet need literally, only considering the practical problem rather than the emotional story attached.

Most Sundays, I go for a long walk with my boyfriend, which we start by getting a takeout coffee. We have instant coffee at home, so our problem is not that we need a coffee. We have plenty of time to make it at home and carry it with us, so the problem isn’t even a lack of time or a need for convenience. So why buy it out of the house?

If I were to wake up and make a coffee at home, I will have a slow start to my Sunday. Likely ending up sitting down with my coffee whilst watching TV or reading a book, and before I know it, it will be midday and I will need to crack on with the list of house jobs.

But if I buy a coffee out the house, that’s the first thing we go to do when we are up. We then immediately get ourselves outside into the fresh air, go for a big walk and try to tick off that elusive 10k a day step goal by midday. I can then get back home, ideally also with some grocery shopping, and spend the rest of my Sunday feeling good about myself because I’ve already got myself outside and ticked off my movement. At risk of sounding dramatic, I’m not being sold a coffee, I’m being sold part of a routine that helps me to be the person I want to be.

My Sunday morning coffee ritual

This is supported by 2024 research that shows the ideal-self congruence (buying things that align with who we want to be) is often a stronger motivator than products that match our current reality.

It’s the reason why people buy luxury handbags when a cheap tote would carry their belongings just as well, or why a ‘healthy, quick meals’ cookbook is attractive even when most of us already have plenty of recipes saved down on Instagram. The problem solved isn’t carrying items or finding food. It’s about identity, aspiration, and convenience.

What happens when you frame problems well?

Business is no longer simply about identifying the problem, it’s about framing that problem.

Framing the problem is all about the way you define and present the issue your customer faces so that they recognise it as their own. You want them to be able to picture themselves in the scene you’re painting, making it clear you’re selling the lifestyle of that Sunday morning get up rather than just simply coffee.

When you frame a problem well, three things tend to happen:

1. Customers can see themselves in the story

2. They understand the value you bring without you needing to over-explain

3. They reward you with loyalty

Seeing themselves in their story: By really getting to the root of your customers problem, you can tap into their emotions with your marketing and branding. As I said in last weeks article when I talked about how you’re not selling a need, often customers are buying into aspiration. You want to show them the type of life they aspire to have, with your product or service forming part of the solution that’s going to get them there. Your customers are the centre of your story, but you can’t get them there without fully understanding, and correctly framing, their problems.

Understanding the value: The UK Behavioural Insights Team estimates that “shrouded” markets – where people can’t easily compare price or quality – cost the economy £14bn a year.

Businesses who frame their problems and design clear information around that are the ones growing the economy. Displaying transparent prices or clear service information is problem solving in itself, and immediately addresses any customer hesitation. So if you’ve not correctly framed the problem, you can’t display the value of your solution, and so your business will be falling behind. (Fortunately, that’s the exact problem I solve with customer first website designs for businesses with a purpose).

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Rewarding you with loyalty: Deloitte’s Consumer Loyalty Survey (2024) found that 86% of consumers rate rewards, simplicity, and ease as the most important factors in whether they stick with a brand. So customers aren’t often loyal to loyalty schemes themselves, but instead the problem it solves. For example, my problem is I likely spend too much money on takeout coffees, but a coffee subscription could save me money on that. A coffee business can therefore frame the problem of affordability and build a loyalty scheme solution around that.

Pret A Manger did exactly this and saw a sales rise of 10% year on year in the first half of 2024 after resetting their subscription pricing. They cut the monthly cost from £30 to £10 to reframe the offer as an affordable convenience during a cost of living squeeze (as reported in The Guardian and the BBC).

I was living in London during this time period and knew much fewer people who didn’t have the Pret subscription than those who did. But when Pret changed it up again to reduce the savings you could get from it, everyone was quick to jump ship. No one had loyalty to Pret, or to their loyalty scheme. They have loyalty to whoever solves their problem best.

You can get good, convenient coffee from lots of places in London. Customers were only loyal to the savings.

So how can you frame your customers problems more effectively?

1. Name the problem you’re really solving.

You’re not selling a handbag. You’re selling a way to feel stylish and put together on a Monday morning.

A coaching session isn’t just 60 minutes of expert advice. It’s providing clarity and a prioritised path forward to get the customer out of a decision storm.

A cookbook isn’t just a group of recipes. It’s a way to feel healthy and good in your body even when you don’t have the time or energy for something fancy.

When you anchor your messaging in the real problem, you can move from describing your products to solving your customers lived reality.

2. Make sure that problem isn’t just convenience

Don’t get caught out by thinking of the basic needs. I offer website design services, and it would be easy for me to say that I am selling the convenience of you not having to design and build your website yourself. But my clients simply couldn’t create what I do without me. I’m offering the chance for them to increase sales, align their brand, create a digital strategy, improve both theirs and their customers clarity on what it is they’re here to do. That’s so much more than convenience.

But if it truly is convenience you’re selling, think of the bigger picture,

Pret managed to grow sales during a cost of living crisis by reframing their subscription from a premium perk to an affordable daily convenience. They positioned their subscription as a scheme that will save you money on something you’re already buying (just maybe not from Pret). They weren’t solving the problem of people needing coffee. They were solving the problem of people wanting to treat themselves to a coffee during the workday or for their commute in an affordable and convenient manner. And they clearly sold that convenience well.

3. Think about customer identity

The strongest businesses solve emotional problems as well as logistical ones. They give people a way to be who they want to be.

A sustainable brand doesn’t just sell shampoo, but helps people feel like they’re contributing to climate action. A premium fitness app doesn’t just deliver workouts, but makes the customer feel like the type of person who invests in themselves. My local coffee shop doesn’t just sell me coffee, but gives me a reason to be the type of person who starts their Sundays off with a big walk.

Identity is at the heart of why people buy. So framing the problem well doesn’t mean inventing pain points for your target customer, but literally stepping into their shoes and understanding the aspiration behind the purchase. Then targeting that aspiration in your product or service, messaging, and design.

4. And how visual design adds to that identity

We fundamentally care about visuals. And for many, visual design or visual appearance is a big part of their identity. A 2024 study in the Journal of Business Research found that product aesthetic strongly drive satisfaction in impulse purchases. As isn’t style and appearance the ultimate solution to a significant number of our modern day problems?

If your product or service point of difference relies on your advanced skillset, or a new and improved visual design of something, that is still solving a user problem. Because unesthetic design is a user problem. Some people may not understanding buying a £1,000 handbag over a £1 canvas tote when they both solve the same problem of needing something to carry your things in. But only the £1,000 handbag will move a customer closer to the type of person (a designer handbag carrying one) they may aspire to be.

Just because something may sound trivial to some, doesn’t mean it’s not a customer problem. It just means they’re likely not your customer.

I for one am forever in awe of designer handbag collections. Image from Shutterstock.

Of course not everyone agrees

I may well be painting the world of business with a very broad brush by reducing it all to problem solving. As with everything, there’s nuances. Some professionals critique “solutionism”, which is the idea that every human issue can be framed neatly as a problem with a fix. Challenges like climate change or inequality don’t lend themselves to tidy answers, and if they do, they’re definitely not problems I can solve (Journal of Business Ethics).

Others push back on “techno-solutionism”, warning that new products framed as “fixes” can ignore cultural context or even create new harms. Which is further supported by how 9 in 10 consumers have been affected by ‘dark commercial patterns’ where manipulative design tricks have used problem framing to push people into decisions they didn’t intend (EU digital fairness, 2025).

I don’t believe these points fundamentally disagree with my own. Instead these viewpoints should simply serve to remind us that, as with everything, framing the problem requires humility and context.

Every business exists to solve problems. The real question is whether you’ve identified the right problem, and whether you’ve framed it clearly enough for your customer to see it.

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