Good Problem-Solution Fit questions to ask your customer

The Customer Development Journey — Part 1

“It’s very difficult to build a business around a “nice to have” product, so you should keep your burn low while you iterate your core experience to make it a “must have” — Sean Ellis

Diamonds are the ultimate example of a ‘must-have’ product.

So all in all we’ve seen that this phase of the Startup Journey is where you get to understand/get the right fit for the existing situation in order to improve it for your target group.

There are 3 categories you should focus on while trying to determine how your product could fill your customers need.

The 3 Problem-Solution Fit categories are —

1. The problem
2. The behaviour
3. The solution

Note that there are also then 3 types of ‘fits’ you will gain from this:

a) You get ‘Customer State fit’ in order to make sure you understand your target group, their limitations, and their currently available solutions, against which you are going to compete.

b) Another answer you’ll have now is your ‘Problem-Behavior fit’. You’ve managed to filter out the noise and identify the most urgent and frequent problems, understand the real reasons behind these and can now clearly see which behaviour supports it. Make sure to ask yourself if this behaviour is weak or infrequent and if it really is a problem worth solving?

c) Last up is ‘Communication-Channel fit’, this one will help you sharpen your communication in order to understand which strong triggers, emotional messaging could help you reach customers via the right channels.
Aah, finally, now you can translate all the validated data you have gathered into a solution that fits the customer state and his/her limitations.

⚠️Remember

Its all about solving a REAL problem and tapping into the EXISTING and clear and common behaviour of your target group.

1) The problem

You can start by making a list of lots of problems and then guide your customer through an elimination game in order to end with the most important need/problem as the one to continue on.

Or to get deeper into the problem you can ask these questions —

• So I’d like to start by just learning a little bit more about you (business, hobby, interest, etc.) Would you mind telling me a little bit about it, and how you’ve been doing XYZ?”
• What is your biggest problem when it comes to X? / Do you ever run into any problems or issue while doing XYZ?
• What would you say is the #1 problem you experience
• How often does this problem occur?
• What is the cause of this problem?

2) The behaviour

This sections’ info will mostly be used in your communication strategies. Think about what your customer does about the problem currently (around it/directly or indirectly related to it?)

• Have you tried any solutions to help you with Problem ABC? What are the current solutions you’re using, and why do you think they suck? (Make sure to do a good job of getting specifics: names of solutions and specific pain points)
• And if you don’t mind me asking, what are you currently paying for these?
• And since you mentioned that it does help, what is that you would not be able to live without?
• Would you be willing to pay for something better?

Ask yourself the following and elicit some more answers from your customer in terms of —

• How they try and solve these problems?
• What triggers them to solve it?
• Which emotions does your customer feel before/after this problem is resolved?
• Where does this behaviour happen?

3) The solution

Let’s hope the customers’ answers to the above hasn’t been too far off of your original hypotheses — if so you’re gonna have to do this section at a separate interview following the previous sections’ input and your redraft of the possible solutions.

So here’s where your pre-planned (Draft 1) solution finally comes in:

• State your vision of what you think might solve your customer’s problem.
• And assuming you have the solution, are they willing to purchase it from you?
• What would they be willing to pay for this level of solution?
• Do you mind providing me with a range? (This might be thought of as an intrusive question, so perhaps ask your customer to spend some time quantifying the results like the revenue brought in through new business, time saved, or wider appeal. A good answer here would be the following,)
• “ $X/month-$Y/month, not more than $Y/month, then I’d be losing money”

✅ OK, I’ve asked all the questions now what?

OK, now, using all the info you’ve gathered from your customers thus far as your true north, answer the following questions in order to get the final draft of your Problem-Solution Fit sorted -

• Who is your customer?
• What triggers your customer to act?
• Which emotions do people feel before/after this problem is resolved?
• Where does this behavior happen?
• What limits your customer from acting when a problem occurs? (E.g. Spending power, network connection, available devices.)
• What solutions are available to the customer when he or she is facing the problem?
• What has he/she tried in the past?
• What are the pros/cons of existing solutions?
• What problem do you solve for your customer? There could be more than one, explore it.
• How often does this problem occur?
• What is the cause of every problem on the list?
• What does your customer do about the problem currently (around it / directly or indirectly related to it)?
• How often does this related behaviour happen?

If you’re building a more general solution for the masses, you’ll need to spot patterns in the problems people are experiencing, and to do that you’ll need to talk to more potential early adopters!

In order to keep making progress, you will need to keep repeating this type of interview process, even after you have achieved a problem-solution fit.

Once simply isn’t enough even if you’re building a custom solution at a high price point.

You’ll now know you’ve done enough interviews if you know with certainty —

• Who your customer is
• Why your customer needs your product (what problem you’re solving)
• That your solution is solving the problem effectively
• That your solution is feasible (economic, technical, legal, etc.)

And finally, it’s time to get your creative juices boiling in order to prime your solution to fit your customer’s problem— remember its all about solving a REAL problem and tapping into the EXISTING and clear and common behaviour of your target group.

Read this to learn how to start finding that perfect solution to your customers’ problem.

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