About 70% or 80% of conversations I have with early stage founders begin with some version of the words “we’ve built this amazing product, and…” The rest of the sentence doesn’t matter because just these 6 words tell me everything I need to know.

I’m dealing with a solution that’s looking for a problem.

This is very common, especially with technical founders. To be honest, most of them do have amazing products, but they don’t really know why should someone choose their solution or even define who that someone is.

Start with a Problem

When I hear the above words I always stop them mid sentence and ask what problem are you solving? This is usually answered with another blurb of we’re helping so and so do such and such, which is a little better than what a product does, but still far from good enough.

And when I tell them to stop again, I simply ask why should someone pick your product?

This always get their head spinning. You can see the wheels starting to turn as they start running things in their head.

I love that look, it’s a great start…

The 3 Domains

This is when I pull the image you saw above this article and start explaining that every startup should go through three domains (in that order):

1. The Problem Domain – This is where you clearly define the problem. Who is suffering from it (your ICP, may be more than one type), the size of the market, its segmentation, how the problem affects your ICP (cost), what are the symptoms, what are the real causes (did someone say 5 whys?) and so on.
2. The Solution Domain – This is where we look at all the possible solutions for the problem, who’s delivering them, what are the pros and cons for each solution and which solution is best for which customer type. 
3. The Business Domain – This is where we better understand the segments of the market, the competition, the possible value proposition, the barriers to entry and the level of risks. This is where we build a business model around the product.

Why Use This Model?

The goal of every startup in its early stages is to find a Product-Market Fit. This means you are providing the right solution to the right person at the right value proposition. The only logical order to so is the above.

For some reason many startups jump over the first domain (problem) and start with the solution. This result in a long iterative process of testing and improving many half baked solutions to a misunderstood problem.

An Example:

When the war in Israel started I had a great idea. I thought we should build miniature drones to infiltrate the underground tunnels of Hamas to provide intelligence and maybe neutralize hostage situations. 

Sounds like a good idea, with many other applications, but is that the best solution? I found after some conversations that it wasn’t. There are much better solutions that can provide similar functionality.

If I had gone through with the idea I could have wasted a lot of time, energy and funds, just to find that someone had done a better job and provided a better solution for the problem. 

Conclusion

Many startups start with a solution. This leads them on a path to discover a problem. But who said that their solution is the best one for that problem?

When a startup goes through the above journey it has a strong foundation to justify its choices. The framework will help you avoid costly mistakes and lead you in the right direction, saving you time, frustration and money.

So, always start with a problem…