How to write great problem statements
A problem well defined is a problem half solved
Everyone knows by now that problems are important for your startup.
But when was the last time you wrote down the problem statement for your startup?
I’ve cooked up 5 problem statements of startups I’ve once mentored, most intentionally bad, for you to learn common mistakes from.
By the end, I’ll give you a canvas that helps you to write yours.
1: ‘Loneliness in students’
Can you guess the startup idea? If not, it’s not defined well enough. Above is an umbrella problem and the consequence of something else. You feel lonely because X, Y or Z.
Better: Amidst covid, students found it harder to make friends, because spontaneous meetings were almost non-existent due to the lockdowns of bars and cafes.
This statement now explains how the problem arises, which I call the problem mechanism. If you don’t understand how the problem arises, go fish.
Also, this new problem statement suggests a solution direction, something about the spontaenous running into people, making it easier to ideate. What solution types come to mind?
The startup eventually hosted culturally themed expat-local student events, so Dutch students hosting a typical Dutch night for expat students. The startup was killed, partly because the Dutch supply side of the platform didn’t scale.
Takeaway:
Check your problem statements for umbrella or ambigious signs
Check if the problem mechanism is there
What is the consequence of the problem?
2: ‘Everybody loses their loyalty stamp cards from coffee shops’
You might be able to guess this startup idea. Some loyalty app, right? Classic tarpit idea, I’ve seen at least 5 startups in The Netherlands alone in the past few years.
Still, there’s room for improvement. It’s unclear who ‘everybody’ is. Not all people with stamp cards lose them. Also, where does this problem take place? What is the consequence?
Better: Because customers of local non-chain coffee cafes forget their loyalty cards, the cafes have a harder time to build up a deep relationship with their customers as they can’t offer discounts to frequent customers.
Sometimes, when multiple stakeholders are involved, you can write two problem statements. See how the problem shifts, and the job to be done too? The owner is building a business, the customer is getting a coffee.
Takeaway:
Understand ‘whose’ problem it is.
If you have multiple stakeholders, write separate problem statements
3: ‘People want to be inspired’
Can you imagine the solution? If so, you might be quite creative. This startup wanted to make an inspiration collection app: another classical tarpit idea.
The issue: the above statement is not a problem, but a job to be done. It’s a vague and abstract job to be done.
If your JTBD applies to everyone, it’s not specific enough. ‘Would you like to earn more money for the same amount of work!?!??!?!’ - Yeah duh. You make specific JTBDs because it helps with segmentation and scoping your product.
Better: Junior designers struggle with curating their inspiration media diet. This means that after graduation, often they don’t get new input and feel less inspired then when being educated, making them worry about their career.
I made it more specific and showed where in the journey of the user this problem occurs. I also added an emotional consequence of the problem. This sometimes helps, but not always relevant. The startup in question has been killed.
Takeaway:
Don’t confuse JTBD with problems
Focus on where in the journey specifically the problem arises.
4: ‘Custom-fitted earplugs for concerts are too expensive’
Can you guess the solution? Probably cheaper custom-fitted earplugs, right? This startup aimed to use the 3D Lidar scanner of an iPhone to make the custom-fitted printing process cheaper.
I like problem statements that anchor into an existing alternative. This can only work if the product category is self-explanatory for what problem it solves. If I say that current retro-encabulators don’t prevent side fumbling, you will have no clue.
More accurate: Many people want to prevent hearing damage, but don’t end up wearing earplugs. The cheap earplugs don’t have a comfortable fit, yet the custom-fitted ones are too expensive for many to justify the purchase.
What I like about this problem statement is that it becomes a little story that shows how the problem originates. The startup is currently on hold.
Takeaways
Don’t forget how the current alternatives suck
Stories work well for explaining problems and the customers frustrating journey
5: ‘Working in the same office every day is boring’
This problem resonates with a lot of people. Can you guess the startup? Such a broad problem statement might be fine in the early stage, as it opens up a lot of solution ideas. But if you don’t make your problem more concrete, you will walk in circles.
This startup aimed to launch AirBnB for office swaps. Say you want to do a workcation with your crew, and swap cities for a week with a different company, sounds fun, right?
The solution was quite clear, but they didn’t understand what the problem was they are solving? First, they thought it was boredom at the office, but after handcrafting their first swap (after a very lengthy acquisition process), they found out that people wanted to be inspired.
But, again, being inspired is too broad. There beachhead was design agency to design agency. Inspired for them meant to learn from practical cases of other designers outside of their own agency.
The problem owner seemed to be the office or HR manager responsible for organizing such matters.
Better: When organising inspiring events for your employees, is hard to find inspiration that matches their day to day work.
This problem statement uses a ‘When’ construction, that helps to frame where in which process the problem occurs. However, inspiration is such a hard to frame JTBD, that I still am not 100% happy with this problem statement.
At this point, the team found out that the office swap part was actually the least important part according to interviews they did. They thought of organising events for designers, but then realised they were basically reinventing Meetups. Startup killed.
Takeaway:
Using ‘When …’ helps to highlight the process in which your problem occurs.
In some aspirational products, a problem is very hard to locate (read more here)
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Try it for yourself with the Problem Statement Canvas
Summarising all take-aways, these elements roughly make up the problem statement canvas by Bill Aulet. This is the best way to structure your own problem statement, and tell a little story.
This is how you can tell the story of your startup, using the elements above:
Revisit the 5 examples
Let’s make some full circle problem statements of the five examples:
Expat students have a hard time connecting with local students. Especially due to COVID lockdowns, spontaneous events are scarce. This makes them feel lonely. Virtual meetups and other platforms were experienced to be too professional. This makes it hard for expat students to connect with local students…
When trying to pay for coffee, loyal customers often remember they forgot their coffee stamp card. This frustrates them, as they could’ve had a discount. They’ve tried to remind themselves to take it with them, but due to a full wallet, often the stamp card is left at home. When they try to pay for coffee…
When design students graduate, the supply of required reads and content stops. Students that haven’t build a reading habit, experience a lack of new content and perspectives, making them feel out of touch and lagging behind, sometimes even worried about their carreer. Via Instagram and LinkedIn they are finding some content, yet that is quite superficial and short. Going back to school is not an option, so they find themselves with lack of deep content supply…
When visiting a concert, most people are aware and sometimes anxious of the dangers of hearing damage. Many people try the cheap €10 euro plugs, but these are very uncomfortablem. Some people shell out over €135 for a pair of protective earplugs, but people on a tighter budget don’t go that road. This leaves them anxious at concerts, contemplating ‘what if’-scenarios.
When trying to improve your agency’s productivity and personel well-being, designers often complain about being uninspired. Finding inspiring activities is hard, because what is inspiring to designers is quite specific. Visiting seminars takes quite some travel time, yet being out with the team is great for synergy.
To be frank, I’m still not entirely happy with number 5. I can’t empathise enough with the HR manager, about what the frustrations specifically are. This leaves me with a guessing game, and a weaker problem statement. This means that I don’t have the right data. If you have a similar experience, go talk to more (potential) customers.
Some last tips
You probably need to do some iterations on your problem statement before it’s perfect.
If you do this exercise with your team, start with doing it individually, and then compare problem statements, to avoid groupthink before organising and articulating your ideas. This increases the amount of perspectives.
Being specific is better than being broad. Even though the problem ‘fighting climate change’ might tickle your ego, your customer doesn’t care about your ego.
Having a multiple paragraph problem statement is not an issue. However, in some contexts, such as a 10-second pitch, a shorter is better.
If you can’t articulate clearly why some things are problems or how the problem mechanism arises, you need to talk to more (potential) customers.
Your problem statement continously evolves until you find product-market fit. This is not an exercise to do once in week 1 and then never touch it. In week 1, your problem statement likely is vague because you haven’t spoken to 25 ideal customers yet. Go out there.
Need guidance to product-market fit? Book a mentoring session with me!
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