4 min read  ·  Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Stop Solving Problems That Don’t Exist

"A Guide to Effective Market & User Research"

Welcome to the tech graveyard—home of slick interfaces, immaculate code, and... zero users. Buried here are products built with love, sweat, and over-caffeinated engineers, all doomed by one tiny oversight: no one actually needed them.

It’s the classic blunder. We fall head-over-heels for our clever solutions. They’re so shiny! So elegant! So utterly unnecessary!

Instead of being a “solution machine,” try becoming a “problem detective.” Think Sherlock Holmes, but with fewer pipe-smoking monologues and more user interviews. Let’s learn to sniff out real problems before you spend six months building a feature that no one even asked for.

Step 1: The Problem-Hunter's Toolkit (No Magnifying Glass Required)

💬 User Interviews: The Goldmine of Clarity

Sit down (virtually or IRL) and ask people about their actual lives. Not what they wish they could do someday if they were 10x more productive and had a personal assistant named Siri.

Do ask: “Tell me about the last time you tried to [do the thing]. What was that like?”
Don't ask: “Would you use a magical feature that did X, Y, and Z and maybe folds laundry?” (They’ll say yes to be polite. Don’t fall for it.)

📊 Surveys: The Snack-Sized Insight Collector

Less juicy than interviews, but great for speed and scale. Don’t overdo it. Keep it shorter than your average attention span while binge-watching reality TV.

Use for: Spotting patterns. Segmenting users.

🕵️ Observational Studies: User Safari

People say one thing, do another, and forget the third entirely. Watch them use your product or a competitor’s. You’ll spot all sorts of weird workarounds, rage-clicks, and browser-tab acrobatics.

Step 2: Spying on Competitors (Ethically, Of Course)

Don’t just copy your competitors unless you enjoy slow, painful mediocrity.

• Read Their Reviews: One-star app reviews are brutal, hilarious, and wildly educational. Users will tell you exactly what went wrong—with spice sprinkled like Salt Bae.
• Find Their Gaps: If they cater to Fortune 500 behemoths, maybe you could serve that quirky bakery in Midtown.
• Exploit Their Pain: Where are they clunky, buggy, or inexplicably confusing? Be better. (Low hanging fruit, sometimes.)

Competitors already spent a boatload of cash educating the market. Steal their insights, not their UI.

Step 3: Make People Up (But Like, Use Real Data)

You can’t build for “everyone.” That’s how you end up with bloated software and marketing that says absolutely nothing.