\u0420\u0435\u0437\u044e\u043c\u0435: <\/strong><\/p>\nIdeas used to be the scarce resource. GenAI changed that. So, what have startups like Cursor and established companies like Procter & Gamble figured out about innovation and generative AI? The factor that drives differentiation is the human insight that helps reframe the problem. Here\u2019s a look at how companies are using GenAI to surface data and patterns that help people<\/em> do just that \u2014 and how you can do it too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nFor most of modern business times,<\/span> competitive advantage belonged to whoever had the best ideas. Better ideas meant better products, which meant more customers, which meant more revenue and profit. The entire innovation industry \u2014 consultancies, design firms, brainstorming retreats fueled by sticky notes and gallons of La Croix \u2014 was built on this premise: If you could generate more and better ideas than your competitors, you would win.<\/p>\nThat advantage has been vaporized by AI. <\/p>\n
Generative AI has turned ideation into a full-blown utility. Today, anyone with a $20 subscription to a GenAI tool can instantly generate 100 product concepts. That has rendered the raw material of innovation \u2014 ideas \u2014 as abundant, accessible, and cheap as electricity. And here\u2019s the thing about electricity: Nobody competes on it. You compete on what you build with it. Which means the competitive advantage has shifted upstream, from the solution to the problem \u2014 specifically, to how you identify and frame<\/em> the problem in the first place.<\/p>\nThis is something I\u2019ve taught for years \u2014 to executives, MBA students, and others \u2014 going back to my time as a designer at IDEO. It is called Question Zero: the question before the question. Before you ask, \u201cHow do we solve this?\u201d you need to ask, \u201cAre we even looking at the right problem?\u201d The quality of innovation has always been determined by the quality of problem framing. But until recently, most organizations could get away with mediocre problem framing. Why? Because ideas were scarce enough to be valuable on their own. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s no longer the case. When everyone has access to the same idea-generation engine, the remaining edge is the insight that tells you where to point your business. GenAI won\u2019t give you this insight, though it can surface data and patterns that help you<\/em> see it. Let\u2019s examine why businesses continue to frame the wrong problem, examples of startups and established businesses reframing successfully, and how to get started.<\/p>\nWhy Most Organizations Frame the Wrong Problem<\/h3>\n
If problem framing is so important, why is everyone so bad at it? <\/p>\n
It\u2019s because the \u201cbest\u201d problems \u2014 the ones that lead to the most valuable, genuinely differentiated solutions \u2014 are almost always hidden. And they\u2019re hidden for a specific, annoying reason: The people who experience them can\u2019t tell you about them.<\/p>\n