£ The Founder's Toolkit | ‘for Problem-Solution Fit _' teeOvercoming Founder Blindness ys You have no The Traps: inherent right to Cognitive dissonance be successful. Co Fear of failure & Fear of success CO Ease of avoidance s O Playing house Your aSSUMpTtiONS | G Founderromanticzetion will be wrong. CO Wider ecosystem mentalityBeware of Tarpit Ideas The Stress Test ALETSTEEERs a problem that cece looks easy to solve from the outside but is incredibly difficult to execute in reality. * Do you have familiarity with the required technology and how it works? + Do you know when to take advantage of hype versus when to keep it at bay?Diagnosing Problem Urgency = Candy Vitamin Painkiller Nice to have, enjoyable, Good for long-term health, Solves an immediate, acute but no urgency or but hard to measure immediate —_ problem. The customer knows fundamental need. impact or prove ROI. they have the pain ands, actively seeking relief.The Evidence of Imperfect Solu fons Are people willing to pay for an imperfect solution today? Investigation Checklist © What do people currently do to solve your problem? © Ifit’s unsolved, is it big enough for someone to pay to have it solved? © Does it actually need solving? © How do you know, and what are your biases?Sizing the Market Reality TAM (Total Addressable Market) - How big is the largest market? SAM (Serviceable Available Market) - How big is the market that you could reach now? SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) - - What is the market you can reach with your current resources? EVG (Earlyvangelists) - What are your most potential customers?Crafting the Problem Statement 1. What is the 2. Who has the 3. Why is ita problem? problem? problem? Clearly define the Identify the specific Explain the core issue or friction user, customer consequence, point. Avoid segment, or impact, or pain ambiguity. stakeholder caused by the experiencing the issue. problem's. existence. Avalid problem statement must clearly answer all three elements with zero ambiguity.Drilling Down to the Root Cause The 5 Why’s Framework Start with an initial statement defining the Problem and the Person. ‘Ask “Why does this problem occur?” five consecutive times to move past surface-level symptoms and uncover the actionable root cause.The 5 Why’s in Practice Initial Statement: University admissions offices spend too much money on recruiting students. Why #4: Universities can’t cost-effectively identify potential applicants, so they mass market, achieving a >$2500 cost per applicant. Why #2: Admissions offices purchase low-quality leads to generate mass mailing lists. Why #3: The leads are low quality because they provide minimal demographic data and no proof of interest. Why #4: There is no proof of interest because students are unable to demonstrate their interest to the university. Why #5 (Root Cause) Students are unable to demonstrate intrest because it requires physically attending events (doesn’t scale) or reaching out via cold intro (hard for a 17-year-old).Running a Pre-Mortem he Why will your idea fail? ~ Brea crtiay ndCase Study: Evaluating IP Rights The Scenario: IP Rights Management across global ecosystems. IBM Plex Sans « © reddit ads_ || facebook Ads are aIP Rights Pass/Fail Analysis JS Are there problems? (Pass) WS Are they scalable? (Pass) J Would solving them make money? (Pass) Are they painful enough for those with capital to be willing to pay to solve them? (Fail)Becoming a Problem Hunter The risk of not addressing actual problems is real. Be outcome and problem-focused, never simply solutions-focused. Be unafraid of your true ambition. If yo growing, you’re probably uncomfortable.Actionable Next Steps How can you know more by doing less? = a Activities Library/Reading + Run a mom-test. * The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick * Learn about ICPs (Ideal Customer * The Founder's Dilemmas by Noam Profiles) and sketch one out. Wasserman * Crystallize your pre-mortem and problem statement.