[smartbear]

As the author of the article, I agree with you.

I also agree that trying to force "problem" into the discussion isn't useful, and in fact is counter-productive because you're verbally moving further away from what the business is really doing.

So perhaps the whole thing should be qualified as: In the case that a business is solving a problem, which _is_ typically the case in B2B (notice all your examples were B2C), _then_ this is a useful way of breaking down the typical questions you should be posing yourself.

[andrewstuart]

I'm not a PG fanboy but I do respect his thinking, and he really nailed it when he said "make something people want".

That statement is a much more generalized statement about what the basis of a business must be, whether or not it solves a problem, for a business to succeed it must provide something that people want.

In writing this comment I suppose it could even go further and say "make something people want or need". For example insurance and legal compliance are not things people tend to want, but do need.

[duckmysick]

> make something people want or need

That makes sense. I agree, it's more universal and elegant than just solving a problem.