How to prove your problem assumption
I recently wrote about the importance of ensuring your solution solves a genuine problem, but I didn’t explain how to actually test whether this is the case. So how do you test if your target market genuinely has the problem you think they have?
One method is to go online to see if people are talking about the problem you are trying to solve. There is so much conversation online nowadays that you are bound to find something. If not, then you should wonder if the problem really does exist (unless you are in a very specialist field).
Another way to check demand is to see if anyone searches for a solution to your problem online. You can do this by doing a Google search and seeing how many results you get back. Alternatively, you can use Google search tools, like the Keyword Planner. These will give you an indication of the demand, and it will surface potential competitors.
While these are valid approaches and a good place to start (particularly as you can do them quickly and cost-effectively), they are not as powerful as going to your target market and engaging with them directly. Talking directly with your customers is critical. However, it isn’t easy, mainly because it is hard to ask the right questions and to structure the conversation appropriately.
The real challenge is getting honest feedback from those you are interviewing. It is human nature to want to please, especially if they are friends and family. This could lead to a false sense of security; hence you need to structure the conversation correctly.
The first bit of advice is to focus the conversation on the problem you are trying to solve. To be more precise, discuss specific instances where the interviewee has faced that particular problem. The key here is to use real examples where they have faced the problem and avoid at all costs any hypothetical cases.
Follow up by asking what they did to solve that problem. This is a great way to find any competitive alternatives to your solution, and potentially how much they are willing to pay for a solution. In some cases, the person may have done nothing and just accepted the problem as it is. In these instances, you must ask if this is a big enough problem to solve.
So what happens if the person you are interviewing has never actually encountered the problem? In this instance, there is very little benefit to the conversation, as everything will be hypothetical, which can lead to false positives.
Another critical point is to steer clear of mentioning the proposed solution, no matter how excited you are about it. This conversation is about proving the problem actually exists, and not whether you have a good solution for that problem. This will come next when you look at the Solution phase.
