A lot of marketers focus their attention on thinking how to solve problems faced by their target audience. They even talk about solving latent consumer needs that the consumers do not know exist yet. All the focus is on identification of needs in order to design products with features that will help satisfy those needs.

Forget satisfying needs and start thinking of enabling customers to lead better lives.

You might not see much of a difference between the two. In fact, they appear to be very similar. But they aren't. The difference is the same as that between calling someone physically disabled and differently abled. It is the attitude you bring to the table.

When you are focused on enabling customers to lead better lives, you are not thinking 'How much money am I going to make by selling this to a thousand more people?'. You will start thinking 'How will this impact the lives of a thousand more people?'. And that is a big difference. And a much needed one.

This is the attitude I see in the 'Internet for all' project championed by Facebook with the involvement of other giants like Samsung and Qualcomm where these companies want to bring Internet connectivity to the other 5 billion people.

What does your product enable your customers to do?

What do you enable your subordinates to do?