2.2. Problem Hypothesis

All people experience problems. Sometimes problems can be minor and are solved in a matter of minutes without making people cry and feel devastated. Sometimes problems can be more serious and can turn people into heart-broken, frustrated and emotionally unstable creatures. If you’re planning to become an entrepreneur and introduce a new product or service on the market, your success depends on the seriousness of the problems that people experience and whether your problem or service is able to solve those problems. Accordingly, before developing anything, you need to run a problem hypothesis and determine if the problem really exists.

How to Formulate?

Before formulating a problem hypothesis it is necessary to draw a distinction between a problem and a need.

A problem is not a need, though a need can sometimes be a problem. Needs are something that exist every day and we cannot do without, while a problem is an issue, a difficulty that has to be solved. For example, a salesperson needs more money because he has to buy food every day. That is one of his needs.

When the same salesperson runs his business and has to input some information about a customer to CRM, he spends about four minutes but would actually like to spend only 10 seconds. In this situation, he loses time and most likely money. That is a problem. That is his problem that we can solve by formulating and running a hypothesis, which usually sounds as follows: Some people experience difficulties/feel annoyed/lose resources in a certain situation.

How to Check?

The only way to check if there is a problem that your product is going to solve is CustDev. You need to talk to your customers. Your (potential) clients know best. You need to get into their shoes and make certain that there’s a problem that needs to be solved and that your product has all it takes to solve that problem.

Pay attention that you are not urging people to blindly accept and buy your product, you’re not offering your solution, but analysing if there’s something that needs to be worked out. You must conduct at least 5 interviews to get a better picture of the situation and you must conduct them on a regular basis.

Interview Questions

In order to understand if the market needs your product, if there is a problem that your product might(?) or will(!) solve, you need to talk to your customers and get as much information as you can. It is advisable to speak and place emphasis on the past of the customer, as there’s a higher possibility that people will be open to share their real experiences and won’t lie. You need to ask whether the person had already experienced that kind of problem or been in a similar situation before your product entered or will enter the market. You can ask about the ways of solving that problem that the customer used.

Another good question to continue with is “How often did or do you experience that problem?” It is important to get to know about that because the problem can be very rare and might not require the development of your product at all. Finally, it’s really important to talk about feelings and emotions: “Did it make you feel uncomfortable? Why? What emotions did you experience?”

The emotions that customers experienced when the problem appeared reveal whether they are ready to and how much they are willing to pay for the product that is to solve that problem. If about 80% of customers felt uncomfortable when facing the problem, the problem often appears and the following provokes strong emotions that means that the problem exists, problem hypothesis is validated and customers are looking forward to your product.

Final Words

People usually buy products not because of how they look like or because they have a particular taste or smell, but because people hope that this specific product will solve a specific problem that person experiences. Accordingly, in order to understand that your product or services are necessary and long-expected, you need to ask people who are or are going to be your potential customers. If you want to successfully enter the market and stay there for a long time, you need to take into account the situations of the customers, develop and hypothesize that your creation will meet customers’ needs and become a silver bullet for their problems.