Question zero

Businesses fail when they solve the wrong problem

On June 9th, amid its falling market cap, StitchFix laid off 15% of its salaried workforce, or about 330 people. While there are macroeconomic forces at play, such as inflation and consumers’ cuts in spending, StitchFix value promise missed the consumer mark. Simply, it has never been clear who is it for and what problem it has been solving (RTR’s subscription, in contrast, delivers on a very clear idea). I have always been suspicious that something like taste, trends, and mood that shape fashion consumption can be codified by an algorithm. Supply of new and appealing items is also always a bottleneck. StitchFix’s extension, Freestyle, proved to be similarly unexciting. Arguably, these costly ventures failed because it didn’t identify the essential challenge their consumers grappled with.

The essence of any given problem, according to Harvard Business School professor Herman Leonard, can be reached through question zero. Question zero is a sequence of “whys” used to get designers through a chain of answers until they reach the actual challenge they need to address.

Applied to creative strategy, question zero can clarify the exact thing we are trying to accomplish and help us create smarter solutions. It allows us to address bigger and more important issues than we originally set our…