Identifying Pain Points

After identifying your key user type, the next step is to find the pain points most worth solving. This deep dive walks through a three-part approach to uncover strong pain points, narrow them to three distinct problems, and choose which one to prioritize.

Part 1: Paint the user's world

Briefly restate who you're designing for and what makes their situation unique. Then walk through a typical day and pay attention to moments of uncertainty, frustration, or loss of control.

Don't start with a list of problems you already have in mind. Let them emerge from the user's experience.

Capture more problems than you need. You'll narrow the list later.

Part 2: Sort into buckets

Sort the problems you’ve identified above into four buckets:

1. Time
2. Money
3. Motivation
4. Trust & safety

Sort each problem into the bucket that fits it best, then look at the overall spread. If your problems span at least three buckets, you have a strong mix. If they cluster in only one or two, go back and identify problems rooted in other types of friction.

This step is important because different buckets point to different root causes, which lead to more distinct solutions. If all three problems are about motivation, for example, you’re likely to generate three similar solutions that blur together.

Part 3: Choose what to solve first

Compare the three problems across all four criteria. Explain why your chosen problem comes first, why the others were deprioritized, and why this company is especially well positioned to solve it. Your choice should reflect both the user need and the company context.

• Breadth: How many people in this segment experience it?
• Depth: How frequent or painful is it?
• Product strength: Is the company well positioned to solve it?
• Risk: Can the product reliably deliver the intended outcome?