Start with the User’s Problem
Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it? Describe the user, situation, present workaround, and consequence before proposing features.
What You Will Be Able to Decide
- Explain start with the user’s problem in product and business terms.
- Apply this decision: Describe the user, situation, present workaround, and consequence before proposing features.
- Recognise this material risk: the team builds an elegant solution to an assumed or low-value problem.
- Use this review: Trace one booking from the customer's first request to a confirmed appointment, then test what happens when the slot is unavailable.
A founder is turning an idea into a brief that a consultant can estimate and build. This lesson gives you a concrete question to take into a build brief, proposal review, or product decision.
Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it? The course example is A founder's appointment-booking service for local businesses; use it to decide what evidence would justify the choice before a builder implements it.
What Does Start with the User’s Problem Mean for Your Product?
A founder is turning an idea into a brief that a consultant can estimate and build.
Use the illustrative service for this course (A founder's appointment-booking service for local businesses) to make the choice concrete. Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it?
Technical term
Start with the User’s Problem
A user problem is a specific obstacle, cost, delay, or unmet need experienced by an identifiable group in a real situation.
How Should a Founder Use Start with the User’s Problem?
For a founder's appointment-booking service for local businesses, ask what would happen if the team builds an elegant solution to an assumed or low-value problem.
For this decision, the useful standard is that a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption.
- Decision: Describe the user, situation, present workaround, and consequence before proposing features.
- Evidence to request: show that a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption.
- Owner: name who will respond if the team builds an elegant solution to an assumed or low-value problem.
- Record the result in the MVP brief and acceptance criteria.
- Practical review: Trace one booking from the customer's first request to a confirmed appointment, then test what happens when the slot is unavailable.
How Do You Choose an Approach to Start with the User’s Problem?
Could a real customer finish one valuable job with this first version, and what would prove it? Describe the user, situation, present workaround, and consequence before proposing features.
The risk is that the team builds an elegant solution to an assumed or low-value problem. Compare a simpler option with the proposed one, including who will operate either choice.
- Describe the user or business outcome that must be protected.
- Identify the most credible failure and its consequence.
- Compare the simplest adequate approach with one realistic alternative.
- Set a review point for when the decision may need to change.
What Evidence Should You Accept for Start with the User’s Problem?
What Warning Signs Should You Look For?
- The proposal does not address this risk: the team builds an elegant solution to an assumed or low-value problem.
- Nobody can show whether a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption.
- The decision has no named owner or review point.
What Should You Ask a Consultant?
- What changes for the user if we choose this approach to start with the user’s problem?
- How have we reduced or accepted this risk: the team builds an elegant solution to an assumed or low-value problem.
- Can you demonstrate that a real user can complete the intended outcome and the result tests the stated assumption?
- Who owns the result, and when will we reconsider it?
Key takeaway
Key Takeaway
Describe the user, situation, present workaround, and consequence before proposing features. Ask for evidence against the specific risk: the team builds an elegant solution to an assumed or low-value problem.