How to Define Gaps?

We may not realize it, but we are constantly making decisions. When to wake up, what to eat for breakfast, what to wear, and so on. Some decisions are made consciously, and others are made with the subconscious. When we are driving our car, we periodically look at the gas tank, but we don’t always go to the next gas station and fill up the tank. Each one of us makes this decision differently, few may fill up when they see that less than a quarter tank of the gasoline is left, while the others may wait till the low gas warning light goes off. Some may fill up the tank completely, while the others may have a set dollar amount or gallons of gas, they may fill up the tank.

Even though we are making this decision multiple times a day, we may not know that we are making the decision so many times. Most people may think that they only made that decision once when they decided to pull over to a gas station and purchase some gasoline, but what about other times when one checks their tank and sees more than enough gas (in their opinion) and decide not to pull over to the next gas station? This is also a decision that is made by one's subconscious.

Our brain is marvelous, but if every decision it makes was made consciously, it would take a lot more computing power. So, for brain efficiency, a lot of work is done through our subconscious. It takes a lot more brainpower when we are learning a new task, but once the task is learned it may become our routine. Remember the first time one rides a bike, drives a car, or starts playing a video game, every decision is made consciously, but as one becomes more experienced the whole ride on a car or bicycle may seem like a task done completely by the subconscious.

Having our subconscious doing so much work gives us a great benefit of brain efficiency, but it also creates some issues which only a great problem solver could solve. To become a great problem solver, one must acquire tools and practice them rigorously. One of those tools is the skill to define the problem which was discussed in my previous article (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-define-problem-mohsin-ahmad). In this article, we will discuss how to define gaps. Defining gaps may be a very simple yet difficult task at the same time. By definition gap in a problem is the difference between the present situation and the ideal situation. It goes hand in hand with problem identification, after the first step is taken and the problem is identified, the gap must be defined to solve the problem. To define gaps, one must acquire a couple more skills which are:

i-???????????????????Conversion of Qualitative Values into Quantitative Values

ii-??????????????????Defining Bounds and Deadband

Conversion of Qualitative Values into Quantitative Values

Most people around us see the world through qualitative values rather than quantitative values. You may see that some people would want a big house (or cozy house), a beautiful car, a good-paying job, or a good-looking spouse. You may hear people say they went to a bad restaurant, a great shopping mall, or a nice historical place. ?These are all qualitative values; unless a problem solver knows how to convert them into a quantitative value, it would be impossible to define a gap. If one becomes efficient in this skill, it may help in making good decisions, problem-solving, and career advancement. If I say that my current vehicle is very small, and I am looking for a big automobile for my family. It is not possible to define a gap from this statement. I must tell you how many seats my car does have now and how many seats are required to fulfill the ideal situation. It may be that I am looking for a bigger storage area rather than seats, so I must define the size of storage that I have now and the size of storage I must have.

Medical practitioners use this skill to gauge the pain level, even though the pain level can't be quantified through a measuring device; they ask the patient in a quantitative value of their pain (usually from 1 to 10). If they don’t do it, they will never be able to gauge whether or not their treatment for the pain is working effectively. The surveys also use this technique very effectively, they use the answers and sort them with a numeric value. The quantitative value could be a number just as mentioned in the example above, or it could be binary where the answer is “Yes/No” just as some surveys or questionnaires do. This topic will be discussed in a lot more detail in a future topic of decision matrix, but it is very important for anyone who is defining gaps to understand the difference between qualitative values and quantitative values.

Defining Bounds and Deadband

?In our daily life, there are binary decisions and others are non-binary decisions. For example, depending on the daylight in the room you can either leave the light off or turn it on. There is no in-between situation, you either have the light on or off, so it is a binary decision. If you see a gas station on the road, whether or not to enter that one is also binary, because you can either enter or not enter. Any binary decision would not have any bounds or deadband, most of the other decisions require bounds and deadbands. Once you can quantify your present state and your ideal state, as long as both are within the deadband you should not have any problem.

Bounds are the lower limit and the upper limit of an ideal situation. For example, if one likes to fill up their fuel tank anytime the level goes lower than a quarter tank and always fills up to the full tank, the lower limit will be the quarter tank and the upper limit will be the full tank. Anything in-between will be considered deadband. This is the only way that one can define the gap when the tank goes lower than the quarter of a tank, and the ideal situation is a full tank. ?Since anything in between is deadband the driver may not worry if the tank is above the quarter tank mark.

We use this technique all the time without us knowing it, we buy milk, bread, and other grocery items by using this principle. We have an upper limit of grocery items and a lower limit, as long as we are in between these bounds we don’t buy any more of these items, but once the lower limit is reached, we may replenish the items to the upper limit. Sometimes if we are already in the grocery store and we may replenish the grocery items even if they have not reached the lower limit, but we try not to replenish them above our upper limit.

Defining Gaps

With the rising gasoline prices and people being more environmentally conscious, a lot of them around us want to buy more efficient vehicles. To define the gaps, one must know how many miles per gallon of gasoline their current vehicle runs, and what would they like it to be. Since different vehicles have different MPG (miles per gallon) values one must know the maximum amount of money one is willing to spend to buy a vehicle, the highest MPG vehicle that one can buy with that kind of money will be the upper bound and the lowest MPG which this person would be okay with if other features and price is met will be the lower bound.

Let’s assume the current vehicle does 20 MPG, the person is willing to invest $35,000 on a new vehicle, and the minimum efficiency required is 35MPG. For $35k the person can buy a vehicle with 55 MPG.?So, his upper bound would be 55 MPG and his lower bound would be 35 MPG while the current is 20 MPG. Of course, buying a vehicle requires a lot of other considerations as make, model, body type, and so on, and that will be discussed in the decision matrix article, but any complex problem must be solved by dividing it into smaller simpler portions.

Successful salespeople are very good at defining gaps, they are trained to ask great questions to understand their client’s current situation and their bounds. A good real estate agent must know whether or not their client currently owns the house, what is the maximum amount of money they are willing to spend to buy their next property, minimum bedrooms, and bathrooms they are willing to accept. They must quantify the square footage of the kitchen and the rooms their client is willing to accept. These skills help the agent find and close on a property quicker because they understand how to quantify their clients like and what are the deadbands that their clients are willing to accept.