1. Ask questions

To identify the right problem you have to ask the market for opinion. This is critical — Don’t try to solve a problem people see as low priority or unimportant. Identify the right problem by asking the right questions and observing.

Inventors tend to show off their inventions expecting everyone to understand and accept them, but that is opposite of what you should do if you want to find the right solution. You cannot identify the people’s problems by presenting them your products or app.

One of the best ways to find your answers could be on social media. Find a group that relates to the topic you are interested in and then just observe. See what they are asking, what they are commenting. From that, you can get many ideas. After you get to know your target group, approach them directly with the following questions:

What is leading you to feel there is a problem?

Is it something specific or is it an intuitive sense that things aren’t as they should be?

Can you define the problem?

Reach them through the group or direct message. People tend to share their opinion willingly about the topic they are passioned about.

2. Analyze the problem

Once you get a better understanding of the problems your market has you can start with the analysis.

The questions you want to be answered are:

How often does the problem occur?

How severe is it?

Are there any special circumstances that are present when it occurs?

What might be the causes of the problem?

Can you rule out any causes?

How long has it been going on?

Has it gotten worse?

How is the problem affecting other processes or people?

Has anyone tried to solve this problem in the past?

3. Identify decision criteria

After you understand the problem you are solving try to put your self in the users’ shoes. Define how they will make decisions when it is time to decide. How they will react and why they will choose or reject you.

For example, if one person thinks the design of an app is the most important, but another thinks the diversity of features is more important, you will have to define which one brings more value and which one you will address. Writing down all the criteria you have found and rating them you will make a more objective evaluation of the solution you will make.

Here is an illustrated example of how to do it:

Step 1. Identify the criteria.

Step 2. Rate the criteria.

Step 3. Rate the solutions that can provide the criteria and multiply by the weightings.

Step 1. Identify the Criteria

In this step, identify the key factors that matter to your future users. Let’s use a food delivering app for restaurants as an example. This will be our clients’/restaurants criteria:

Mobile friendly

Secure payments

Online payments

Fast delivery

24h delivery

Great design

User-friendly app

Delivery tracking

Courier tracking

Ultimately it will not be a linear decision, and it’s about satisfying the various functionalities from the user and technical perspective. The more criteria you have you will be able to make a better decision and avoid simple pitfalls.

Step 2. Rate the Criteria

The next step is to identify the weighting of each criteria. This is where you start to get clarity on what really matters. Stick to a scale of 1–3 the keep the process simple. In this case, 1 is less important and 3 is more important since we will multiply by these numbers in the next step.

Step 3. Rate Your Solutions Against the Criteria and Multiply by the Weightings

In this step, you rate your solutions from 0–10 against the criteria, and then multiply by the weightings:

Multiply by the Weightings

As you can see, the numbers helped highlight some key differences between the solutions you wanted to offer. Putting your decisions into numbers is rarely going to give you a clear answer, but it will help you expose your thinking and get clarity on your values.

4. Find your passion

It can be very exciting to start the next big idea you have, but so many Startup owners fail because they didn’t have enough passion or clear mission they will stick to.

Passion and planning take equal parts in the success of your company and you will need the motivation to nurture them both. To start, ask yourself a question — What am I passionate about?

If you’re working hard to fulfill a need, but you hate the work, you won’t go far. The same goes for building a project with passion but there’s no need for the product or service you’re offering.

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5. Define your problem

Now that you have a list of things you’re passionate about, understanding of the problems your market has, and criteria matched with your solutions it’s time to trim and define how big the problem you solve is going to be.

If your idea is to fly to the Moon — awesome, but make sure you have the skill and capacity to work on it 🚀. If not it’s OK to start smaller and get familiar with it first. However, if this isn’t your first company, aim a little higher.

Select the problem you actively want to solve, that you are best suited to solve and that has significant opportunity built-in.

Here is what a good problem that worth creating a solution for should have:

1 million people who have the same problem.

The market that will have a 20% yearly growth.

Problems that are needed to be solved urgently.

Problems that cost money, so that the solution will worth every penny.

Problems that people needed to solve multiple times a day.

6. Know your competitors

Once you have your problem in place, odds that someone else has already tried to solve that same problem are pretty high.

Search for companies that have failed to address this problem and figure out why they failed. Did they try to take on too much, too quickly? Was their price too high or too low? Did their idea just come too soon, before the demand had matured?

Having this information you will not only avoid similar pitfalls but will be able to take your business even farther.

If there are still some active competitors on the market, take a hard look at what they are offering and what is their price. You can even purchase an item, download an app or use their service to see where they excel and where they fall short.

7. Build your story

Before you start building your company, you need to define your problem and explain your solution.

This is the story you’ll be telling investors, friends, partners and people you work with. What is that incredible idea inside you and how does your company solve the problem uniquely?

Find a way to pitch your story in a way that you can repeat every day, without it ever growing old. Once you have it this will be your passion for upcoming years.

Now you have a clearly defined problem, the factor that makes you stand out among the rest and the motivation to get it done. These are the elemental first steps that if you skip you will find the only failure.

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