[#4] Are You Solving the Right Problems? How to Identify What Your Clients Need Now

Uncover the real, urgent problems your market faces—and create the product they can’t ignore

Dayo Samuel 💯

Sep 07, 2024

A warm welcome to those who have just joined our solopreneurial journey of product creation. We’re glad you’re here!

Personal Update

First, a quick personal update. I didn’t publish last week because I’ve been moving houses. If you've ever moved, you know how hectic (and expensive)that can be.
Also, we're hosting a Canva for Business Workshop in Sheffield this October. If you're around or have friends who might be interested, feel free to share this link to register.

Now, back to the main conversation.

We've been steadily building towards one big goal—launching your product by Black Friday 2024.

Each week, we've been uncovering crucial pieces of the puzzle: your Product Message, your Market, and your Methodology.

These are the core elements of your product that make it both meaningful and transformational.

But today, let’s focus on something that underpins all of those: Meaning - How to know what problems your clients and customers need to solve more urgently.

What IKEA Can Teach You About Solving Your Client’s Problems (Without the Frustration)

So while I was moving, I bought some new housewares, including items from IKEA.

If you've ever assembled IKEA furniture, you know exactly what I’m about to say.

I found the assembly process extremely frustrating.

None of their product manuals include words—only line drawings—and as someone who prefers clear instructions, I was left guessing during certain steps.

I couldn’t fathom what I was supposed to do at specific moments.

I had finished coupling a wardrobe before I realised the front was meant to be the back.

But for you as a solopreneur creating products people love, buy and talk about, what’s the takeaway here?

Don’t make your product like IKEA furniture.

Your customers are buying your product to solve a problem or make their life easier.

Don’t complicate that by making your product or service harder to use than it needs to be.

When your clients approach you, they have an urgent problem they need to solve, even if they’re not verbalizing it.

Your job is to create a clear path to the solution, not another puzzle for them to solve.

And that starts by understanding exactly what problems your market needs help with.

How to Identify the Problems Your Clients Are Begging You to Solve

There’s a concept I want you to become super familiar with in this entire Marketable Product Framework: Meaning.

This is about tapping into the unconscious pains your market has to make your messaging, your product, and your overall business more powerful.

Think of meaning as the underlying, emotional reason your clients will choose your product over someone else’s.

When you can understand and address the problems your market faces—sometimes problems they haven’t even fully realized—they’ll trust that you have the solution.

Four Levels of Customer Understanding

As a solopreneur, understanding your clients goes deeper than what they say.

Sometimes, what people do, say, think, and feel are entirely different.

Relying on the most obvious reasons for their behaviour can lead to faulty assumptions.

You may think you understand their problem, but you’re only seeing the surface.

As Hannah Shamji and Helio explain, understanding customer behaviour involves four distinct levels:

Level 1: What we tell others
This level is unreliable. It’s often what people say because they think it’s the answer others expect or want to hear. These are opinions, hearsay—what we hear in casual conversations or surveys.
Level 2: What we tell ourselves
This level gets closer to the truth, but it’s still clouded by personal biases. This is the information we gather in interviews, surveys, or debriefs. It’s more reflective but still might not capture the deeper reasons behind your client’s behaviours.
Level 3: What we actually do
This is where we start getting to the truth. People’s actions reveal a lot more about their needs than what they say. Observing your client’s behaviours often uncovers where real problems lie.
Level 4: Why we do it
This is the goldmine. The deeper motivations behind people’s decisions and actions. To access this level, you need to ask the right questions, observe their context, and build a relationship of trust.

Most solopreneurs stop at Level 1 or Level 2 when creating their products.

They hear their clients and customers complain about something, and they get to work creating the product they think would solve what they heard.

But the real magic happens at Level 3 and Level 4—where you uncover the hidden motivations and root causes behind your customer’s actions.

So, how do you reach these higher levels of understanding?

Observe your customers in their natural environments.
Ask them to walk you through their daily routine, explaining where your product fits into their life.
Pay attention to non-verbal cues—when they scratch their neck, frown, or smile. These often reveal more than words can.

The hardest part is understanding the real motivations behind your customer decisions.

But once you build a genuine relationship with your market, getting to the heart of what they need becomes much easier.

The Four Types of Problems

Once you’ve built that deeper understanding, you’ll realize that problems don’t exist only on the surface.

They can fall into different categories:

Known Problems: These are the problems your market is already aware of. They talk about them openly, and they’re looking for solutions.
Spoken Problems: These are the problems they vocalize, but they might not realize how deeply they affect their daily life or business.
Unspoken Problems: These are the problems your clients know exist but don’t talk about, either because they’re too painful or they don’t know how to articulate them.
Unknown Problems: These are the problems your market isn’t even aware they have yet. But as the expert, you see them clearly.

To position your product as a must-have, you need to address all four types of problems, especially the unspoken and unknown. These are the deeper pains your market has, the ones they may not even fully realize. If you can describe these problems better than your clients, they’ll trust you to solve them.

Example of How This Works in Real Life

I started using Readwise Reader earlier this year to manage my newsletters subscription and RSS feeds.

The problem?

I was still struggling with time—like most of you, I only have 24 hours in a day.

I found myself using the Shortlist feature to prioritize the things I had to read, while the rest piled up as “content collections” I rarely went back to.

You probably do the same thing with social media.

You bookmark things, save posts, and think, “I’ll get to that later.”

But how often do you actually go back?

Exactly.

What I realized is that we all have a shortlist—even if we don’t intentionally create one.

So here’s the real question:

Are you on your audience’s shortlist?

Your product needs to be a priority for your audience, much like how I use Readwise Reader's Shortlist feature to decide what’s essential for me to read.

If your product isn’t solving vital problems for your market, it is going to get lost in the shuffle like the other articles I rarely go back to read.

How to Put Your Product on Your Audience’s Shortlist

The key to becoming a product that your audience prioritizes is speaking to their most pressing problems.

Here’s how:

Tap into their fears and frustrations. What keeps them up at night? What are they most worried about? These are the problems you need to focus on.
Appeal to their aspirations. What do they dream of achieving? Speak directly to their goals, not just their pain points.
Address both the conscious and unconscious problems. Don’t just address what they say—they need. Dig deeper and highlight the problems they aren’t even fully aware of yet.

Think of your product as a journey from current reality to desired results.

Your job is to move your audience from where they are now to where they want to be, by solving their most urgent problems.

The 3 Levels of Client Problems You Need to Solve to Make Your Product Unignorable

The problems your market faces can be categorized into three levels, and addressing each level will make your product even more relevant and powerful:

1. Personal Problems:

These are the internal, often private struggles your audience faces.

They can be emotional, psychological, or deeply personal.

Your client may not openly discuss these issues, but they influence their decision-making significantly.

Example:
A solopreneur might feel overwhelmed by the constant need to keep up with competitors or the fear of failure.

These internal struggles affect how they run their business.

If your product addresses their need for confidence or offers tools to simplify decision-making, you’ll be speaking directly to a personal problem they may not even fully articulate.

2. Position Problems:

These problems are tied to the role or job function your client holds.

They are specific challenges that stem from their position in the workplace or industry, and addressing these can help them perform their job more effectively.

Example:
A marketing manager might struggle with limited resources to run effective campaigns.

They know what needs to be done but lack the tools or support.

If your product helps them automate certain marketing tasks or better manage their budget, you’ll be addressing a position problem—something directly impacting their ability to succeed in their role.

3. Professional/Industry Problems:

These are broader challenges that affect the entire industry your client operates in.

Solving these problems positions you as a thought leader and makes your product indispensable.

Example:
In the tech industry that I work in, many professionals (and one-man businesses) are grappling with rapid changes in AI and automation.

They need solutions that help them stay relevant.

If your product offers continuous learning or tools to integrate AI into their workflow, you're solving a professional/industry problem that affects their long-term success and positioning.

Take the time to ask yourself:

What are the personal, position, and professional problems my market faces?
Which ones are urgent and need solving immediately?
Which problems are unspoken or unknown to them?

Answering these questions will give you deeper insight into what your product needs to address.

Focus on Solving Problems, Not Creating Perfect Products

Just as I mentioned in my last newsletter, one thing I’ve learned is that there is no perfect product.

Products, like people, are works in progress.

And that’s okay.

What matters is that your product solves problems—real problems that your market faces right now.

Remember, your product is a system.

Systems are meant to be optimized.

As you release your product and gather feedback, you’ll improve the message, refine the methodology, and connect with the right market.

In short, focus on the problems you’re solving, not the perfection of your product.

When you market your brand, I think you want my money.
When you market my problem, I think you want to help me.
This subtle shift is key to building trust and making your product the go-to, shortlisted choice for your target market.

Here’s Your Next Steps

This week, take some time to dig deeper into the problems your market is facing. The more specific and nuanced your understanding, the better you’ll be able to create a product that truly resonates with your audience.

Here’s how to get started:

Make a List of Problems:
- Write down the known problems that your market openly talks about.
- Think about the unspoken problems—things your audience is experiencing but might not feel comfortable vocalizing. These could be frustrations or pain points they haven’t fully acknowledged.
- Consider the unknown problems that they aren’t aware of yet, but that you, as the expert, can identify.
Reach Out to Your Market:
- If you're unsure about what these problems might be, don’t guess. Talk directly to your audience.
- Have one-on-one conversations to explore deeper into their unspoken or unknown problems. Ask them about their daily challenges, frustrations, and desires.
- Tool Tip: If you’re conducting these conversations virtually, I highly recommend using Fathom AI to record and transcribe your calls. It’s a powerful tool that captures key insights and lets you focus on the conversation without worrying about taking notes. This will help you pick up on small details you might otherwise miss.
- If possible, observe their environment or workflow. Ask them how your product or a similar product fits into their life. Pay attention to non-verbal cues—moments when they hesitate, smile, or show frustration. These small details can reveal deeper insights.
Use Their Language:
- Pay close attention to the exact words and phrases your audience uses when describing their problems. Mirror this language in your messaging. When they see their exact struggles reflected in your content, they’ll trust that your product is the right solution.
Refine Your Product:
- Once you’ve gathered insights, adjust your product or service offering based on what you’ve learned. Focus on addressing the most urgent and emotionally charged problems your market faces.

Remember, Black Friday 2024 is our goal for launching your product.

Start refining now, using the real feedback you’ve gathered, and let’s work on making your product the go-to solution that gets on your audience’s shortlist.

Live courageously,
Dayo Samuel

P.S. - I’d love to hear what problems you're currently working on solving. Feel free to hit reply—I read every email and would love to offer any insight I can.