As taller buildings started going up in the early days of the industrial revolution, many of them began to include lifts. But instead of receiving praise for transporting people up many flights of stairs, the lifts were criticised for being too slow.
Hearing their customer complaints, the lift companies got to work trying to build a faster product. The problem was faster lifts required better pulleys and larger motors, which made the costs untenable.
It wasn’t until an engineer re-framed the problem that a solution was found.
What if the speed of the lift isn’t the problem?
What if traveling in a lift just feels like a long time because all you can do is stare at the wall and think about being suspended in mid-air?
This line of thinking led to an idea: what if we installed a mirror?
Once mirrors were installed, people became distracted during the journey and the complaints disappeared. People even commented on how fast the new lifts were, even though their speed had not changed.
Re-framing the problem saved a lot of money whilst also improving the customer experience.
It’s a nice reminder for us to look at our personal and professional challenges from multiple angles before investing in a (potentially) costly solution.