what problem does your solution solve?

It is just a lot of bull to me.

When I managed a venture capital fund, company founders would pitch our fund for investments.  I always asked what problem does your new idea solve? It is a question that many venture fund managers ask. I thought of this question this morning when I read the news about Obama announcing the government was getting out of the business of  archiving and controlling your phone records. 

They are going to give this responsibility to an independent organization. Of course no organization wishes this responsibility because of the liability associated with storing the records, which will almost certainly be hacked within 12 months. The records can only be accessed by a secret court order. Feel better? Do you sense the taxpayers will be funding a new independent agency, or the total indemnification of a company to store the records and release them only upon a secret court order? I do.

Further, Obama's solution does not change the National Security Agency's spying apparatus. In other words, he did not solve the spying problem that citizens object too, just who stores the data. Your records will still be stored and probably stored with the credit card records from Target.  Obama's solution solved a problem that did not exist. Americans, as I understand it, object to the invasive nature of the spying activity itself, not who collects the records or where the collected phone records are stored.  Obama announcements are misleading and many Americans will infer that the records are no longer being collected.

Before you do anything in business or in your personal life, make sure you understand what problem you are solving? It is not easy too agree on the problem, but it is essential because frequently that is the issue that breeds discontent with the solution.

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