Houston, let's find the problem.

Here's a question: 

Are the best ideas actually solutions? 

It seems like having a problem is the best way to generate a great idea. If you have a problem and you generate a solution, you've seemingly got a great idea. 

Take for example the Post-it Note. I remember reading an article in Fast Company a couple years back about the guy who invented it all. He had a problem: He was at church and the bookmark that he used in his hymnal would never stay in place. He was working at GM and they were looking for something to do with a less-than-tacky adhesive they had made. Voila! The pos-it was born as a solution to his problem.

Or how about the Got Milk? campaign. 

They taped into a very minor, but very real problem everyone experience when eating a pb&j sammy- it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Voila! The now famous campaign was born as a solution to this problem. 

What happens though when you asked to create big ideas when there is no problem? Do you create a problem? Or does everything have a problem so you better dig deeper? 

This got me thinking. As a strategist, maybe the best  insights are actually problems. Instead of looking for the insight, maybe we should be looking for the problem instead. What do you think?