Startups don’t die because the tech was bad. They die because they solved the wrong problem. And by the time they realise it, the runway’s gone. If you want to avoid that, don’t start with your feature list. Start with your users’ pain. Talk to real potential customers. Not friends. Not investors. The people who would actually pay for your solution. Ask questions like “What’s the hardest part of [doing X]?” or “Tell me about the last time you tried to fix this.” Then go deeper with the Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) framework. It’s not about “Who is the user?” It’s about “What progress are they trying to make?” Think about the functional jobs (what they need to get done), the emotional jobs (how they want to feel), and the social jobs (how they want to be perceived). Map out how they currently solve the problem, spot the moments of friction, and connect those directly to your product’s value proposition. Here’s why it matters: A head of operations at a B2B SaaS company doesn’t want another dashboard. They want to track KPIs in real time so they can report with confidence, make faster decisions, and avoid costly bottlenecks. That’s the difference between building a "nice-to-have" and creating a painkiller they can’t work without.
