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Sean Murphy's avatar

I like your formula of Problem = Customer + Need + Insight

I want to suggest Kurt Lewin's definition of insight as a useful one for entrepreneurs:

“Insight can always be viewed as a change in the cognitive structure of the situation. It frequently include differentiating and restructuring in the sense of separating certain regions which have been connected and connecting regions that have been connected.”

Kurt Lewin in “Behavior and development as a function of the total situation” (1946)

I blogged about in https://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2012/09/23/kurt-lewin-on-insight/ Insight allows an entrepreneur to look at the same situation an established firms sees but make new connections or break what was first viewed as continuous into distinct subsets (or niches).

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Dan MacDonald's avatar

I liked your distinction between Insight and Deeper Need.

As an investor, would you require that the founder(s) have discovered a unique insight, or would you be satisfied with a clear understanding of User + Functional Need + Deeper Need (with the hope that, through paying attention to users, the founder(s) would eventually discover a unique insight)?

I'm also curious to hear your thoughts on how acute the Functional Need should be. i.e., are you only interested in opportunities to solve "hair on fire" problems?

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