Stage 1 of 8 · 7 lessons · ~3 weeks

Find a problem worth solving

Start from a painful, frequent problem that a specific group already spends time or money on, not from an idea or a technology. Every later stage, from interviews to pricing, depends on picking the right one.

Start: Start from problems, not ideas

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Do this

Write three problem statements naming the customer, their workaround and its cost.
Describe one target customer precisely enough to find ten of them.
Collect ten recent public complaints about the problem, with links.
Check the problem on Google Trends and note the search phrases people use.
List five competitors or workarounds and read their negative reviews.
Score your candidates and pick one to test for the next three weeks.

Start with

CourseFree
Startup School
Y Combinator · Beginner
Free lessons on how good ideas come from real problems; watch the ideas and talking to users sections first

Keep handy

Google Trends
Check whether interest in your problem is growing, seasonal or fading, and where searchers are
Indie Hackers
Search your problem area to see what others built, charged and learned, including failures

Also worth your time

How to Get Startup Ideas (opens in a new tab)Read
The classic essay on noticing problems instead of inventing ideas
Product Manager Roadmap (roadmap.sh)Go deeper
A map of the non-coding product skills you will need, from research to pricing and metrics

Before moving on: A one-page problem brief: a specific target customer, a problem statement, ten links to public complaints, search and competitor notes, and the one problem you will test next.

Tauseef's advice

Do not open your code editor yet. The best predictor of whether a small product sells is how much the problem hurts and whether you can reach the people who have it. A week spent reading complaints and reviews saves months of building the wrong thing.