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I believe that many bootstrapped businesses only do half the work. They solve a problem, but they don’t address the most critical problem.

You built a solution for customers who think they have that problem under control. You solved the wrong problem. You developed a solution that helps only at the margins. You solved the wrong problem. You built something, but your customers have bigger fish to fry. You solved the wrong problem.

You want to build a “need-to-have” instead of a “nice-to-have.” You want to develop a painkiller instead of a vitamin. You want to be their aspirin. How can this be done? By finding their most important problem: the one issue that is critical to their success. ...

The most crucial problem a customer faces is on their minds most often. It’s the most important because it’s coming up frequently and is never easy to solve. It has the most impact on their lives, but it’s not always the obvious choice. If you can help a customer with their most critical problem, they will benefit the most.

A Critical Problem Is Painful Problems can be a nuisance. They come up, and you either deal with them or ignore them. We can’t ignore critical problems. They persistently make the lives of those who have them harder until they are resolved. They can’t be just ignored, because they consistently reduce the quality of life.

Find the critical problem where ignoring something causes a lower quality of life.

Find the critical problem at the intersection of something mandatory and something wasteful. 关键问题总是位于强制与浪费的交叉点

A Critical Problem Is Not Optional Some things can be ignored or delegated, but a critical problem can’t be. If it’s critical, people will have to deal with the problem every time it occurs. They can’t just opt out of it. Solving the problem is essential to making any kind of progress in the work. Find the critical problem where people would love to opt out, but can’t. ...

Find the critical problem where people need to do the same thing over and over again. A Critical Problem Occurs Frequently and Repeatedly The reason why critical problems are always on the minds of your customers is that the problems happen so often. Every day, every week, every month, the critical problems repeatedly occur. For your customers, it’s always the most urgent thing at that time. The issue needs to be solved there and then, every single time. If it’s not frequent, it is likely not a critical problem. If it occurs repeatedly and isn’t easily solved, it is likely to be a critical problem. ...

Find the critical problem where solving a problem takes a long time every time the problem occurs. A Critical Problem Takes up Too Much Time If a problem can be solved quickly, people either solve it the moment it appears or they set aside some time to do the work in a batch later, without feeling like it’s a waste of time. If that is the case, the problem is not really critical. Only when you need to spend considerable time and effort each time you solve the problem will it be impossible to “just” deal with it. “Doing it later” also turns into a chore, as it may take hours or days to deal with a long queue of deferred problems. A critical problem will feel like an unwelcome chore: important, yet tiresome. ...

There’s a joke that every SaaS product is essentially an Excel spreadsheet turned into business logic. When someone uses generic tools such as word processors or spreadsheets to solve a problem, it indicates that the problem is significant enough to warrant building specialized tools. Most problems aren’t highly complex and can often be resolved immediately. However, a critical issue will require developing a more sophisticated system. If your customers are using piles of Post-it notes or a disorganized mix of Word and Excel files to address a problem, you might have identified a key pain point. ...

Customer Preferences for Problem Solving Customers often find alternative ways to solve non-critical problems because they want to save money. It’s not worth their while to seek and pay for a solution that they value less than the alternatives. When Customers Are Willing to Pay If the solution saves them time. If the solution saves them money. If the solution helps them make more money.

Finding the Critical Problem So, how can you learn about which is the most critical problem your customers have? It’s quite straightforward: talk to them. Ask them what annoys them most. Find out where they want to be. Ask them what keeps them from being the best at what they are doing.

If you find something that will obviously make them significantly more money or save them a lot of time, then you have something to go on. Customers should really want to pay for it, almost have a burning desire to open their wallets. When they ask you if that is possible and you tell them it is, their mouth should drop to the floor.

Focus on what you can help them accomplish. Ask what customers want and which state they want to be in when the work is done. Don’t focus too much on the “how it’s done.” That is usually more based on tradition than on an optimized process.

Time-Related Pains Most productivity-related issues cause temporal pain: people feel like they’re wasting time. These pains are caused by suboptimal processes and friction between tasks. If tedious work takes a lot of time, it keeps you from doing important and useful things instead. That leads to time mismanagement and relevant actions not being taken. By solving the time-related problem, productive tasks can be accomplished faster and sooner. When people complain about inefficiencies, tedium, or pointless work, you’re looking at a time-related problem. ...

If you hear people complaining about a waste of money, prohibitive costs, compliance, or the wrong people working on the wrong things, you’ve found a resource-related problem.

Self-Related Pains This group of problems is often overlooked. Everyone wants to be notable somewhere. This can mean holding a position in a company or being regarded as a supportive co-worker or friend. When people struggle with achieving these things, they feel self-related pains. The four essential concepts to look out for here are Reputation, Accomplishment, Advancement, and Empowerment.

Do They Know? The Problem with Problem Awareness When you’re conducting interviews with customers, you will hear them talk a lot about the problems that bother them. These are the known knowns. But your prospects will never be able to tell you about the issues they don’t realize they have.

Efficiency What keeps you from being more efficient at work? Why can’t you do more of what you do? Which tasks feel like they are a drag? Effectiveness What limits you from doing your job the right way? Which tasks are the most pointless? What annoys you about working with competitive products? What is your experience like with each of them? Financials Where are you spending too much on tools? Where are you spending too much on consulting? What is your budget for software tools? What is your budget for outsourcing work? ...