Problem finding vs problem solving in thought leadership

Your target audience is almost certainly not lacking for content.

More than a decade ago, marketing strategist Mark Schaefer identified the growing imbalance between the vast volume of content produced by brands and the far more limited capacity of audiences to absorb it. That mismatch, which he termed ‘content shock‘, has only intensified since as a result of the growing popularity of content marketing as a business strategy.

DemandSage, 2025

Layer on top of that the fact that every day an estimated 6 million blog articles, 34 million TikToks, and 2.6 million YouTube videos, and it becomes glaringly obvious that the fight for your audience’s attention has never been more challenging than today.

As a result, you might be tempted to sit out the race altogether — after all, you know your offering is strong and that human connection opens doors. But in an increasingly crowded, digital-first world, relying on that is a risky bet.

The age of information parity

In his book, To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink explains that for most of human history the relationship between buyer and seller was one of information asymmetry. Sellers knew more about their product or service than buyers, which gave them an intrinsic advantage in any transaction.

Today, however, this is no longer the case. The internet has brought us closer to a state of information parity. Buyers can learn about pretty much anything at the click of a mouse, which means they can be better informed and able to reach their own decisions without needing much information from a salesperson.

In fact, according to 6sense:

6sense, 2024

As a result, the new normal of information parity means that brands must be part of the conversation to reach their audience. But not with safe, recycled opinions. That will simply disappear into the sea of content.

Audiences are increasingly seeking thought leadership that generates new ideas and offers fresh perspectives on their world. This is especially true for decision makers, who, despite being exceedingly busy, still spend around 3 hours every week on consuming thought leadership content.

However, creating valuable insights is easier said than done. Especially when pretty much every company wants to be a ‘thought leader’ and when the barriers to entry for producing and distributing content are non-existent. In fact, recent research from Edelman and LinkedIn shows that decision-makers only consider 15% of the thought leadership they read to be of very high or excellent quality.

So how do you elevate your content to the next level?

Don’t just solve problems – find them

Let us return to Daniel Pink, who believes that, given the information parity between seller and audience (or buyer), people involved in sales and marketing need to shift from problem solving to problem finding.

This makes sense as most buyers already know how to solve their problems – or they can easily find out, thanks to the vast amount of information that is already out there. What they are less able to do is to identify problems they don’t even know they have or to see that their problem is something else entirely.

The best thought leadership takes a similar approach. It doesn’t just help the audience to solve problems they already have, it also helps them to bring latent problems to the surface or to think differently about their more fundamental challenges.

What does problem finding mean in practice?

1. Bring a different perspective

When buyers think they already know the solution, the role of thought leadership is to reframe the challenge. That could mean surfacing a root cause they’ve overlooked or challenging the assumptions behind the status quo.

The often complex and layered nature of modern business problems means that solutions to them are rarely straightforward. As a result, it’s vital to step back to reframe the issue and look at it from different perspectives – and providers of thought leadership can help to shape this process.

For example, consider a company that wants to reduce the costs of its finance function by investing in automation tools. Technology may appear to be the solution to its problem, but the real trouble may be deeper than it seems. Perhaps there are fundamental issues related to how productively the finance team works, how it’s composed, and how leaders hire and train its people. Technology might seem like the solution, but maybe the real problem to fix is something else entirely.

2. Make thought leadership a conversation, not a lecture

The delivery of thought leadership is as important as the content itself. Great thought leadership doesn’t broadcast, it engages. That means admitting what you don’t know, inviting conversation, and continuously collaborating with your audience to uncover deeper challenges.

It also means marketing and sales need to work closely together to create a content strategy that sparks interest and fuels genuine conversations.

In fact, research shows that thought leadership is an organic door opener, with 73% of executives viewing it as more trustworthy than product sheets or other marketing materials. Unsurprisingly, brands don’t build trust by talking at their audiences, but by drawing them into the conversation.

3. Think about the empty chair

Finally, it’s important to shape your thought leadership around what your audience needs to hear — not just what you want to say.

Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, famously leaves one seat empty during the company’s meetings. The empty chair symbolises the customer, reminding decision-makers to place customer needs at the centre of every choice the company makes.

Thought leadership strategists would do well to adopt the empty chair strategy – with the audience as their customer. Rather than thinking about the message they want to get across, they should focus instead on what the audience needs to hear. And that is not a message that validates existing solutions, but that challenges, provokes and adopts a problem finding mindset.