Define the Core Problem

Start by uncovering the root problem your product or company is built to solve. This isn't about features or aspirations, it’s about understanding what pain or inefficiency exists in your target market and why it’s urgent or valuable to fix.

Why it's Matters

The quality of your strategy depends on the clarity of the problem it’s solving. Misaligned startups often operate with vague or overly broad problem definitions, which leads to scattered efforts, shallow messaging, and misfiring product decisions. Defining the real problem creates a shared starting point for everything that follows.

What You Need to Do

Strip away symptoms and surface-level assumptions
Identify the underlying customer or market friction
Make it testable: is this a real problem for real people, often enough, urgently enough?

How to Approach It

Look at everything you’ve already done: business plan, decks, Notion docs, sales copy and extract the core assumption:
"What problem are we solving, and for whom?”

Use the ‘5 Whys’ method to get past symptoms.
Example: “Our customers churn.” → “Why?” → “They don’t use the product.” → … → “They never formed a habit because activation failed.”

Talk to customers (again)

Don’t validate your solution — listen for friction, language, and urgency
Ask: “What were you trying to do?” → “Why was that hard?” → “What did you try instead?”

Define the problem in one sentence

Make it clear, not clever
Avoid jargon, big words, or abstraction

Deliverables

1-2 sentence problem definition
A slide or one-pager that communicates it clearly
Optional: a problem map or journey that shows the ripple effects

How to Tell if You Got It Right

Everyone on the leadership team says the same thing when asked
Your customers nod when they hear it
It guides what not to build, not just what to build

What to Watch Out For

Mistaking “opportunity” for a “problem”
Getting stuck at a feature level
Using internal language customers don’t understand
Writing a mission statement instead of a problem definition