If you’re a first-time founder, here’s the trap: you fall in love with your idea, then spend weeks polishing it, while the market quietly ignores you. I’ve done it. Most founders have. And the data is brutal: the most common reason startups fail is building something nobody actually needs. That “no market need” graveyard is well documented in post-mortems analysed by CB Insights.

To avoid these pitfalls, it’s essential to Find Real Customer Problems before you invest time and resources into development.

So let’s fix the root cause. Instead of guessing, we’ll go where your customers already talk, extract real problems in their own words, and rank them with a simple scoring system so you only build what people are already asking for. Think of this as your Problem Discovery OS, a system you can run in a week, repeat quarterly, and teach your team. This ensures you are not only addressing known issues but also uncovering hidden needs through active customer engagement, creating a robust foundation for your product development.

Why guessing kills startups (and what to do instead)

Steve Blank said it best: “There are no facts inside the building.” Translation: get outside, talk to customers, and learn from the real world, not your whiteboard.

In 2025, “outside the building” means inside communities: subreddits, niche Slack groups, Discord servers, LinkedIn groups, GitHub issues, YouTube comments, app store and G2 reviews, even Amazon’s brutally honest mid-star reviews. Why? Because the modern buying journey is self-directed. Research from 6sense found that B2B buyers are ~70% through their process before they ever talk to a supplier, meaning discovery and decision-making now happen in the wild, not in your demo call.

Social attention isn’t fluff; it’s an early demand signal. Sprout Social’s 2025 Index shows 90% of consumers use social to keep up with trends and cultural moments, exactly where pains and workarounds surface first. And people still trust people: Nielsen’s global study found ~88% trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel, so community talk matters.

Practically, this means if you’re not listening where your audience hangs out, you’re flying blind. Those places are massive and active (Reddit alone reported ~102M daily active unique visitors in early 2025), which makes them gold mines for problem discovery, if you know how to mine them.

The Problem Discovery OS (run this in 7 days)

Below is the exact operating system I use and teach. It’s simple, repeatable, and it forces honesty.

Day 0: Build your Market Map

List 5–10 tight segments you could serve (e.g., “dental office managers at 2–10 chair clinics,” not “small businesses”). For each, list:

• 3–5 places they congregate (subreddits, Discords, Slack communities, Facebook/LinkedIn groups, niche forums)
• 3–5 creators/publications they follow
• 3–5 tools they use (and where those tools host discussions: community forums, GitHub issues, app store/G2 reviews)

Quick sources: Reddit, Discord servers, Product Hunt comments, Stack Overflow tags, G2 reviews, YouTube channels in your niche.

Day 1: Pattern Mining: Sort by “Most Popular” and “Trending”

Visit each community and sort by “Top,” “Most upvoted,” “Trending,” or “Most discussed.” Log:

• Threads with unusually high engagement (upvotes, comments)
• Repeated “how do I…” and “best way to…” questions
• Recurring rants about current tools or processes

This is not guesswork, “how to” questions are explicit demand signals. (Even a decade ago, Google/YouTube reported a 70% YoY rise in “how-to” searches; the behavioural pattern is durable: when people need help, they ask.)

Where to look fast

• Reddit: site:reddit.com "<your topic>" "how do I", check r/<your niche>, and related subs
• YouTube: Sort by Most Popular; scan comments for “stuck on,” “any workaround?”
• App/G2 reviews: Sort by 3?–4? to see nuanced pros/cons
• GitHub Issues/Discussions: “bug,” “feature request,” “workaround”
• LinkedIn Groups / Slack / Discord: Pinboards, “FAQ,” “newbie questions,” “gotchas”

Day 2: Pain Language Capture: Don’t paraphrase, copy their words

When you see phrases like:

• “I need help with…”
• “I’m struggling with…”
• “I wish there was…”
• “What’s the best way to…”
• “Is there a workaround for…”
  …copy the exact sentence into your log. The exact phrasing becomes your marketing copy later.

Also capture context: job role, tools they use, constraints, what they’ve already tried, and the emotional tone (annoyed vs. desperate). Emotional intensity often predicts willingness to pay.

Tip: Create a “phrase bank” of metaphors people use (“it feels like duct-taping spreadsheets”), these become high-performing headlines and hooks.

Day 3: Open the Door: Share your own struggle to invite theirs

Don’t post, “What are your problems with X?” That invites generic answers. Instead, lead with your own honest story:

“I’m trying to schedule 15+ client check-ins a week, but every calendar handoff drops 30–40%. I’ve tried Calendly + WhatsApp reminders + Zapier hacks. Still losing people. Anyone cracked this?”

You’ll be surprised how often specific pain begets specific pain. It’s also how you earn trust in communities. This tracks with broader evidence that social-first, listening brands grow faster. Deloitte’s research finds “social-mature” brands outpace peers in revenue and decision quality because they actually act on what they hear.

House rule: contribute > extract. Answer questions, share checklists, and only ask for 20% of what you give.

Community Listening Checklist

• 5+ communities per segment added to your Market Map
• Sort each by “Top/Trending” and log 10 threads with high engagement
• Copy 30+ verbatim pain sentences into your Phrase Bank
• Identify 5 recurring “how do I/best way to” themes
• Share 2 helpful posts (checklists/templates), then 1 story of your own problem
• DM anyone who comments “+1” or shares a workaround; invite a 15-min chat (no pitch)

Day 4: Build Your Problem Inventory

Create a simple table (Spreadsheet or Notion). Aim for 15–30 problem statements across your segments.

Don’t over-clean the language. Keep the customer’s voice intact.

Day 5: Score with the F.I.R.E. Matrix

Rank each problem on four dimensions (0–5). Total out of 20.

• F – Frequency: How often does this show up in threads/conversations in a week?
• I – Intensity: How emotional/urgent? (Rants, “I’m stuck,” “we’re losing revenue.”)
• R – Reach: How many users share this (size of segment) and how easy are they to find?
• E – Existing alternatives: Fewer adequate alternatives = higher score. (If there are “10 tools, all hated,” still high.)

Prioritize ?15/20. Anything under 10 is a “maybe later.”

This approach aligns with Jobs-to-Be-Done thinking from HBR (https://hbr.org/2016/09/know-your-customers-jobs-to-be-done): sustainable value lives where customers “hire” solutions to get a specific job done, in a specific context.

Day 6: Truth Interviews (no pitching, just evidence)

Now talk to 5–10 people per top problem. Use The Mom Test principles so you don’t bias the conversation:

Download “The Mom Test” eBook, here for free

• Talk about their life, not your idea
• Ask about recent specifics, not hypotheticals
• Listen more than you talk
  (If they haven’t tried to fix it, or haven’t even Googled it, it’s probably not a burning problem.)

Language you can copy

• “Walk me through the last time this happened.”
• “What did you try first? Then what?”
• “What did it cost you (time/money/reputation)?”
• “What would ‘fixed’ look like next time?”
• “Who else is impacted? Who signs off on a solution?”

Document actual behavior and actual spend. Commitments beat compliments.

Day 7: Synthesis & Next Step

• Collapse your notes into three problem briefs (one-pager each): who, when, workflow, cost of pain, attempted fixes, “definition of done.”
• Pick one to prototype a solutionless test: landing page that speaks the pain, invites people to a waitlist or a specific outcome call.
• Goal: Evidence of demand before product—replies, waitlist signups from the right ICP, willingness to pre-pay or run a pilot.

Keep the flywheel going monthly. The best founders never stop listening.

The Toolkit (plug-and-play)

Download the Problem Discovery OS Toolkit template for free here.

What “good problems” look like (so you don’t chase ghosts)

Use these evidence-based heuristics:

1. It keeps showing up in public. You see it across Reddit threads, Discord chats, reviews, and YouTube comments week after week. (The public square is massive: Reddit alone sees tens of millions of DAUs; Stack Overflow’s ecosystem shows developers overwhelmingly learn online.)
2. People already spend time or money on workarounds. If they’re duct-taping five tools, hiring a VA, or building spreadsheets, the pain is budgeted.
3. There’s emotion. Frustration, embarrassment, or “we’re losing revenue” beats mild inconvenience.
4. The “job to be done” is clear. You can finish the sentence: “They want [result] but struggle because [obstacle].” (JTBD 101. HBR)
5. Communities echo it. Social listening isn’t vanity, it predicts revenue when you act on it. Social-mature brands that listen and respond outperform on growth.

FAQs I get from founders

“Isn’t engagement a vanity metric?”
It can be. But in problem discovery, repeated, high-effort threads (long comments, detailed workarounds, multiple creators covering the same pain) are leading indicators. Use them to generate hypotheses, then validate with Mom-Test interviews and FIRE scoring.

“What if I don’t have access to private communities?”
Start public (Reddit, YouTube, G2), then earn your way into private groups by contributing useful docs (checklists, templates, teardown posts).

“How many interviews is enough?”
Ten per problem is a strong start. If answers converge and you hear specific numbers (time lost, money spent), you’re onto something. If not, keep listening.

“Should I pitch my idea on the call?”
Not yet. Describe the desired outcome, not your features. Ask for commitment (pilot, pre-pay, intro to their boss) only after you can restate their problem better than they can.

Your next step (this week)

Pick one community from your market map and listen for three days. Post one helpful resource. Share one honest struggle. Run five Mom-Test interviews. By next week, you’ll have a ranked problem inventory and a painfully obvious place to start.

If you want me to review your FIRE table, drop it in a comment or DM it to me. I read everything.

– Nirmalesh
Founder, Nomad Foundr