🚀 How to find a problem worth solving?

3 tactics to find a problem worth solving

🌐 Define the problem with precision

• Quantify the pain: Quantify the Severity (cost/pain per unit) x Scope (# of units) x Frequency (how often it occurs). List all symptoms and outcomes that fail or falls short

• Pinpoint the people affected: Identify the specific customer segments, roles, or teams experiencing the problem and who feels it the most

• Understand when the problem manifests: Determine when and where the issue appears in the process and what triggers it

• Analyze current workarounds: Map how users currently solve the problem, including tools, manual steps, or temporary fixes

• Explain why improvement is needed: Quantify the opportunity cost of current workarounds by comparing it to the expected gains of a better solution (time savings, ROI, or risk reduction)

• Surface adoption barriers: Identify constraints such as habits, tools, budgets, incentives, or organizational resistance that may block adoption

🎯 Evaluate using the 4Us framework

• Unworkable:

  • How painful is the problem (intensity and frequency)? 

  • What are the pains(s) that the problem causes? 

  • Why must the pain be addressed? Are there real, measurable consequences?

  • How widespread is the impact? Is there a group that it impacts more widely? 

  • Is there a lack of resources, technological limitations or outdated processes?

  • E.g. Manual validations that incur fines/penalties if there were errors

• Unavoidable:

  • How necessary is it to solve? 

  • What external forces (regulatory requirements, market shifts, or customer demands) are causing this?

  • Can it be avoided or is it a must solve?

  • E.g. Filing tax, aging, regulatory compliance for data privacy

• Urgent:

  • How quickly must the problem be addressed? 

  • Can it be put off, or must it be addressed now?

  • Is it among the top 3 priorities, and will it get moved up or down over time?

  • E.g. Finding a job, getting medical treatments 

• Underserved:

  • Are there other products or solutions to address the problem? How effective are they?

  • Are there market demand gaps or competitor weaknesses?

  • What resources (money, time, people, attention) is it competing against?

  • E.g. Providing senior citizens simple smartphones  

• See the tools section below for scoring metrics

🤝 Understand what would have to be true (WWHTBT)

• Work backward from the desired outcome and ask a set of cascading WWHTBT questions to reveal constraints and assess if a problem is worth solving

• E.g. to get paying users for a search engine, WWHTBT for:

  • Users to pay → Deliver an excellent experience for ideal customer (e.g., privacy-conscious users) and have regular usage

  • Regular usage → Have users make it their default search engine

  • Default search engine → Offer a high-value, low-friction way for users to switch from their current search engine

  • If offering a high-value or low-friction way for users to switch search engine is unlikely, reconsider working on the problem

2 traps to avoid

🚨 Treating problems as universal across the entire market

• Not every company or user experiences the same pain with the same urgency, necessity, or severity

• A problem that feels minor to one segment can be mission-critical to another

• Narrow down the market to see if there is a segment that has high ratings in each of the 4 Us

🚨 Falling in love with tech before the problem

• Starting with AI, blockchain, or any “shiny” tech = forcing problems to fit solutions

• High-tech products nobody wants waste time and resources

• Focus on the problem first; sometimes a simple spreadsheet beats a fancy model

1 tool to leverage

📖 Best practice on evaluating problems

• Use this Problem Evaluation Canvas to assess the nature and extent of a problem, and whether it’s worth tackling

• Rate each problem 1–5 across these dimensions:

  • Painful (Unworkable): 1 = Minor annoyance, 5 = Critical

  • Necessary (Unavoidable): 1 = Optional, 5 = Must-have

  • Urgency: 1 = Someday, 5 = Immediately

  • Alternatives (Underserved): 1 = Many easy options, 5 = No viable alternatives

  • Impact: 1 = Niche market, 5 = Mass market

• Multiply all five scores together (max = 3125):

  • >500: Problem has sufficient severity to justify a dedicated solution

  • >1,500: Problem shows exceptional severity and warrants immediate pursuit

Bonus: 1 trend to spark startup ideas

88% resolved. 22% loyal. Your stack has a problem.

Those numbers aren't a CX issue — they're a design issue. Gladly's 2026 Customer Expectations Report breaks down exactly where AI-powered service loses customers, and what the architecture of loyalty-driven CX actually looks like.

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