Become a Brand that Disrupts

When you solve a problem, you disrupt a pattern; and you win.

How many opportunities are missed by not finding the right problem to solve or simply ignoring a need that consistently stares you in the face?

The only way to truly build a strong brand is to solve a problem.

When I think about Spotify (I remember telling my dad about it back in 2012 when I came home to visit), I am reminded of the massive problem it solved.

Apple made it possible to carry your music with you. Spotify made it possible to take all music with you.

Back then, my dad could not believe you could find any song, play it on demand, and create playlists for use any time, any day, at any location.

Spotify solved a problem to meet the modern digital age: A music experience at your fingertips.

Spotify is to music what Swarm or Facebook could have been to location discovery.

I have a playlist on Spotify called, “Discover Weekly”. It finds new tunes for me to enjoy based on my listening trends and what their AI believes I may enjoy.

I have also been a Swarm user for about as long. But it lacks discovery. They never built that experience. But how often are you out and about and need to find a place for dinner with friends, drinks with a client, or a first date.

Facebook — the true birthplace of mass online community — could have also done this. But they didn’t. Over the years they have devalued places, groups, and pages.

The music and bands I find because of Spotify Discovery has changed my music library forever.

But instead, I am left with Google Maps and reviews that aren’t using my own usage graph to find similar (and better) places for me to explore.

This goes for any industry: banking, restaurants, clothing, or products for parents.

I will leave you with this stat: HBS professor Clayton Christensen says that 95% of all product innovations fail. And it’s not because they are bad products. It’s because the problems solved aren’t articulated well enough.