u/Able_Guarantee_3610

I’ve noticed that finding a problem isn’t usually the difficult part.

The difficult part is figuring out whether the problem is painful enough for people to actually care about solving it.

Founders can look at:

• Customer requests
• User interviews
• Product usage data
• Reddit/community discussions
• Competitor gaps
• Search trends
• Their own assumptions

But these signals can sometimes point in completely different directions.

So I’m curious how other founders approach this:

What’s the strongest signal that makes you confident a problem is worth building a product or feature around?

And have you ever built something because you thought there was demand, only to realize later that the signal was misleading?

Would be interested to hear what has actually worked for you.

One of the hardest parts of building a product isn’t finding ideas,  it’s knowing which ideas are actually worth pursuing.

You can get signals from everywhere:

• Customer requests
• Product usage data
• Competitor updates
• Reddit/community discussions
• Sales conversations
• Your own assumptions

But these signals don’t always agree.

So I’m curious how other founders approach this:

When several signals point in different directions, what do you trust most before deciding to build?

And has there ever been a signal you ignored that turned out to be important later?

Would be interested to hear how others handle this.

One of the biggest lessons in building a product is realizing that customers don't always think the way we expect them to.

Sometimes we spend weeks solving a problem...

Only to discover customers were trying to solve something completely different.

I've seen founders assume things like:

• "Price is the biggest concern."
• "People want more features."
• "This feature will be our biggest differentiator."

Then customer conversations prove otherwise.

The assumptions that feel obvious inside the company can look completely different from the customer's perspective.

For founders here-

What's one assumption you made about your customers that turned out to be completely wrong?

What changed your perspective?

Was it:

• A customer interview?
• A product review?
• A support conversation?
• Watching how people actually used your product?
• Something else?

I'm interested in hearing the stories behind those moments.

Sometimes the most valuable product lessons come from discovering we were asking the wrong questions.

One thing that seems obvious in hindsight:

Talking to customers is easy. Knowing what to listen for is harder.

Early on, it's tempting to focus on what customers say they want.

But sometimes the more valuable insights are hidden in:

• The problem they keep describing
• The workaround they're already using
• What frustrates them most
• What they tried before
• Why they chose one solution over another

I'm curious about other founders' experiences.

What did your first few customer conversations teach you that you didn't expect?

Was there a question you wish you'd asked earlier?

Or something you completely misunderstood at first?

I think these early conversations can shape a product more than any amount of internal brainstorming.