Customer's Problem

What are the typical problems that customers have?

Drawing from multiple sources, LaunchPath has compiled a nearly comprehensive list of the basic categories of problems that products and services attempt to solve. Use this list not only to document problems you have already observed, but also to stimulate new insights regarding problems you hadn’t considered.

• Access- The customer is frustrated because they can’t currently access something that they wish was within their reach. Note that barriers to access can be physical, financial, cognitive, etc.
• Convenience - The customer is frustrated because the job is so inconvenient.
• Efficacy - The customer is frustrated because the job doesn’t produce the results they were hoping for. E.g. their tax accountant doesn’t save them any money on their taxes, their vacation isn’t relaxing, their employee doesn’t deliver results, etc.
• Speed - The customer is frustrated because the job takes too long.
• Reliability - The customer is frustrated because the job doesn’t always get done at the same level of quality (or perhaps it doesn’t get done at all).
• Ease of Use - The customer is frustrated by how hard it is to do the job using currently available tools / materials / methods.
• Flexibility - The customer is frustrated that they can only do one job with a given product when they think it should be able to do more. (E.g. The hair salon will groom me, but not my dog!)
• Risk - The customer is frustrated or anxious because the job has inherent risks that they would like to avoid.
• Status - The customer is frustrated or embarrassed because the job doesn’t maintain or improve their social status.
• Aesthetics - The customer is put off by the unappealing look, touch, smell, taste, sound of the job.
• Emotion - The customer is frustrated that doing this job doesn’t make them feel the way they want to feel (e.g. unique, powerful, smart, cool, connected, etc).
• Cost - The customer is frustrated by how expensive it is to do this job.