Startups have a terrible 90%+ failure rate, and not solving customer problems effectively is one of the main reasons for this. So, to help you be part of the 10%, let's focus on your customer(s), their problems to solve and validating that these are Tier 1 Problems.  

This should fundamentally ensure you have identified a real problem, and that it’s a big enough problem that is or becomes a “must-have”, not just a “nice-to-have” for your customer.

Even if you have a more established business, you will find it useful to examine the assumptions your current success is based upon. Revisiting these in detail can often unlock the key to helping you scale faster, so it's worth doing. All of this helps you tell a better and stronger story, and makes the creation process simpler and more effective.

Assessing the customer problems

To assess your customer problems, try the following process, whilst keeping an eye on “outliers” as they could be a hint of future desires from the market

1. Write down the hypothesis
2. Complete Customer Research e.g. primary (your own) and secondary (from others) and Segment the customer types focussing on their Jobs they have to do, Pains they encounter and Gains they want.
3. Create a User Persona for each to visualise and understand the customer problems more deeply.
4. Sample at least 20–50 users to understand their Jobs, Pains and Gains.
5. Validate willingness to pay e.g. available budget, urgency, need, decision maker, tier 1 problem, competitors, growth market, investors erc.
6. Create draft Value Maps for each to fully understand their needs.
7. Find your Earlyvangelists (the customers who are most receptive to your offer) as they will help you refine your offering.

The questions you need to answer about your product or service

• What is your solution and hence what are the key features and benefits you offer?
• What are the differentiators that make your brand stand out?
• What are the outcomes for your audience and the sector/industry/world as a whole?
• What are the “reasons to believe” for your customers, funders, partners etc?

Your Earlyvangelists

Your Earlyvangelists are those willing to trial and adopt your product from the beginning...your champions! They are important as they can help fast track improvements. A such, they need to have the following characteristics:

• They have a problem or need — a job to be done
• They are aware of the problem — they know what job to complete
• They are searching for a solution — and need it in due course
• They have created a solution — an interim (but imperfect) solution
• They are willing to pay — they can find a budget and ability to pay

How can you find them? Via friends, family, social media, networking etc.

Analyzing your data and possible outcomes

Customer research can often lead to more customer research. Once you’ve answered one pressing question, new questions can arise or old questions can remain unanswered. These can require further research or different approaches to be satisfactorily answered. Perhaps the product requires a tweak, the target market needs to be more focused or diversification is key to survival.

Objectives at the start of the process may include:

• Understanding why customers buy from competitors
• Learning what problems your customers face on a daily basis
• Testing the level of customer satisfaction when using your product, etc.

Whatever they are, you’re looking for predicted trends in your data that imply that a certain course of action is better than others. For example, if you focus on feature X, your (potential) customers will be more willing to buy your product.

You could also perform SWOT analysis to assess the “health” of your business and where improvements can be made. This stands for

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats