Many times in trying to solve a problem, answer a question or design a product, service or business, I like to think a particular way that has helped me to arrange my thoughts better. I call it Lifecycle Thinking.

A butterfly starts its life as an egg then larva, pupa and finally becomes an adult butterfly. There’s a process involved. Things don’t just happen. One thing leads to the other.

Let’s put this into real life situations.

I spoke to a friend a while ago about starting a business. He grew up near a farming community and still had contacts there so I asked if there are things we buy in the city that they produce there so we can buy, transport, sell and then split the profit. It sounded like a good idea, at least for a while. The problem was that suddenly there was scarcity of this commodity and the unit cost became more than we could afford at the time. So I began to ask questions.

Q: Where do we buy palm oil from?
A: The market
Q: Where do the market sellers buy from?
A: From people bring from the village
Q: Where do these ones get it from?
A: They buy from farmers and then take it to the oil mill to be refined

So why don’t we do the same? Why don’t we buy from farmers, refine and then take it straight to the city for sale thereby cutting out all these middlemen, reducing the cost of purchasing and maximizing profit.
He had been aware of the process but never thought about it this way.

Farmer-Miller-Middleman-Market seller-US-City Market sellers-City dwellers
Became:
Farmer-US-Miller-US-Market Sellers-City dwellers

This thinking can be used to solve many other problems.

What do you think?

Suggest a problem and let’s attempt to solve it using lifecycle thinking.