GUIDE / 01

Start with one real problem

A practical guide to finding a person, understanding one frustrating moment, and making a small useful improvement.

THE QUESTION BEHIND THIS GUIDEFrom the 2025 questions about usefulness

There is no shortage of interesting tools, business models or things you could build. The harder question is what deserves your attention. A useful starting point is much smaller: someone is trying to do something, and part of it is frustrating.

Find the moment, not just the category.

“I want to help small businesses” is a direction. It isn’t yet a problem you can work on. A category contains thousands of different situations. Narrowing the situation gives you something you can understand, question and eventually test.

Ask someone to describe the last time a task became difficult. What were they trying to do? What happened first? Where did they stop, repeat themselves or go looking for information? Let them tell the sequence before you introduce your idea.

A specific account is more useful than a general wish. “Everything is disorganized” could mean missing details, unclear responsibility, a slow handoff or too many places to check. Each one suggests a different starting point.

Write down the friction in plain language.

Describe the person, the task and the interruption in one sentence. Avoid including the solution in that sentence. If the problem statement already contains the name of the tool you want to use, you may be describing your preference rather than their need.

A HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE

A studio manager has to ask a customer for the same appointment details twice because the first message never makes it into the handoff.

This is an invented example to make the method concrete, not a client story.

Now there is something to investigate. You can see where the details arrive, who needs them next and what goes missing. You can also discover that your original explanation was wrong. That is useful progress.

Choose a change you can observe.

The first improvement does not need to be an entire platform. It could be a clearer question, a shared checklist, a better handoff or one place to put information. Choose the smallest change that gives you a fair way to test your understanding.

For the studio example, that might mean agreeing on the few details needed for an appointment and putting them where the next person can see them. Before adding complexity, check whether that actually removes the repeated question.

Decide what “better” means before trying the change. It might mean fewer missing details, a task completed without asking for help, or a clearer next action. Use a signal you can observe. A polished screen is not, by itself, evidence of an improvement.

Watch someone use it.

A change that makes sense to you may still be confusing to the person using it. Watch a normal attempt. Notice where they hesitate, work around your idea or fall back to the old method. Ask what they expected to happen.

Do not turn the first test into a performance. If you need to narrate every step, that tells you something about the process. Make a note of what required your explanation and decide whether it belongs in the instructions, the design or a human handoff.

Then change one thing. Keeping the next attempt small makes it easier to understand which adjustment helped. You are trying to learn whether your idea is useful, not defend the version you happened to make first.

Before you build.

Take one real conversation and finish these four lines. If you cannot finish them yet, your next step is probably another question.

The person and the momentWho is trying to do what, and when does it become difficult?
The interruptionWhat gets lost, repeated, delayed or misunderstood?
The smallest useful changeWhat could you try without rebuilding everything around it?
The visible resultWhat would you observe if the change helped?

Keep the problem close.

There will always be another tool, another model and another compelling explanation of what you should build. Keep a short description of the original problem nearby. When a new idea appears, ask whether it helps that person in that moment.

You can expand once you understand the first improvement. Starting small is a way to get close enough to the work to see it clearly.