What Problem Are You Actually Trying to Solve?

You have an idea, you get excited and you start building. Then someone suggests another feature. Then another. Suddenly you're three months in, you've built half a product and you're still not entirely sure what problem you're actually solving.

I've done it. I suspect most founders have.

The problem is that being busy feels like progress. Building feels like progress. Hiring feels like progress. Having meetings feels like progress.

Sometimes it is. But sometimes you're just moving very quickly in the wrong direction.

I've started to think that one of the most useful questions a founder can ask is incredibly simple:

What problem am I actually trying to solve?

Not what product are we building? Not what should the website look like? Not what should we call it?

What problem? For whom? And why does it matter?

Once you know that, an awful lot of other decisions become easier. You can decide what to build, what not to build, who you need, who you don't need, where to spend money and where not to.

The answer might even be that the problem you've been obsessing over isn't the important one.

That's uncomfortable. But useful.

Because founders don't necessarily need more answers. Sometimes they just need someone to ask the question they haven't thought to ask.

That's one of the things I like about the idea of a Village.

You don't need four people telling you what to do. You need four people who are willing to listen to what you're trying to solve, challenge the assumptions behind it and look at the problem from somewhere you can't.

Sometimes all it takes is someone sitting across from you and saying:

“Hang on. Is that actually the problem?”

And suddenly you're solving the right thing.