Problem Validation Workflow | Bootspring Docs

The Problem Validation workflow guides founders through the critical process of identifying and validating problems worth solving before investing time and resources into building solutions.

Overview#

Property	Value
Phases	4
Tier	Free
Typical Duration	2-4 weeks
Best For	Pre-idea founders, early validation, pivot exploration

Why Validation Matters#

Most startups fail not because of bad execution, but because they build solutions to problems that:

Don't exist or aren't painful enough
Affect too few people
People won't pay to solve
Have adequate existing solutions

Validation prevents wasted months building the wrong thing.

Validation Framework#

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        PROBLEM VALIDATION FUNNEL                        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                         │
│     ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐         │
│     │              PROBLEM HYPOTHESIS                          │         │
│     │     "I believe [customer] has [problem]"                │         │
│     └───────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┘         │
│                             │                                           │
│                             ▼                                           │
│            ┌────────────────────────────────────┐                       │
│            │       CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS          │                       │
│            │    Validate problem exists         │                       │
│            └────────────────┬───────────────────┘                       │
│                             │                                           │
│                             ▼                                           │
│                 ┌─────────────────────────┐                             │
│                 │     MARKET SIZING       │                             │
│                 │   Validate big enough   │                             │
│                 └───────────┬─────────────┘                             │
│                             │                                           │
│                             ▼                                           │
│                    ┌────────────────────┐                               │
│                    │ COMPETITOR ANALYSIS │                              │
│                    │  Room for you?      │                              │
│                    └────────┬───────────┘                               │
│                             │                                           │
│                             ▼                                           │
│                       ┌───────────┐                                     │
│                       │ VALIDATED │                                     │
│                       │  PROBLEM  │                                     │
│                       └───────────┘                                     │
│                                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Phases#

Phase 1: Problem Hypothesis (2-3 days)#

Agents: business-analyst

Clearly articulate the problem you believe exists.

Tasks:

Define target customer segment
Articulate the problem statement
Identify current workarounds
List assumptions to test
Prepare interview guide

Problem Hypothesis Template:

## Problem Hypothesis Canvas

### Customer Segment
**Who has this problem?**
- Demographics: [age, role, industry, company size]
- Psychographics: [motivations, frustrations, goals]
- Behaviors: [current actions, tools used, frequency]

Example:
> Engineering managers at B2B SaaS companies (50-500 employees)
> who are responsible for developer productivity

### Problem Statement
**What problem do they have?**
- Describe the pain in their words
- What triggers the problem?
- How often does it occur?
- What's the impact?

Example:
> Spends 5+ hours/week context-switching between tools to understand
> why deployments are failing, leading to longer incident resolution
> times and frustrated engineers.

### Current Solutions
**How do they solve it today?**
- Existing tools they use
- Manual workarounds
- Accepted pain (do nothing)

Example:
> - Manual log searching across 4 different systems
> - Slack war rooms with engineers
> - Post-mortems to prevent recurrence

### Assumptions to Test
**What must be true for this to be a real problem?**
1. [Assumption 1]
2. [Assumption 2]
3. [Assumption 3]

Example:
1. Engineering managers actually track deployment health
2. Current tools don't provide unified view
3. This costs significant engineering time
4. They have budget for new tools

Phase 2: Customer Interviews (1-2 weeks)#

Agents: business-analyst

Talk to potential customers to validate (or invalidate) your hypothesis.

Tasks:

Identify 15-20 potential interviewees
Conduct 10+ customer interviews
Document findings systematically
Identify patterns and insights
Update hypothesis based on learnings

Customer Interview Guide:

## The Mom Test Interview Framework

### Rules
1. Talk about their life, not your idea
2. Ask about specifics in the past, not generics about the future
3. Talk less, listen more
4. Ask follow-up questions
5. Look for evidence, not opinions

### Interview Structure (30-45 min)

#### Opening (5 min)
"Thanks for taking the time. I'm exploring [problem area] and would
love to understand your experience. This isn't a sales call - I'm
just trying to learn. Is it okay if I take notes?"

#### Context Setting (5 min)
- "Can you tell me about your role?"
- "What does a typical day/week look like?"
- "What tools do you use for [problem area]?"

#### Problem Exploration (20 min)
- "Walk me through the last time you [experienced problem area]"
- "What happened? What did you do?"
- "How often does this happen?"
- "What did that cost you?" (time, money, frustration)
- "What have you tried to solve this?"
- "How did that work out?"
- "What do you wish existed?"

#### Digging Deeper
- "Why is that important?"
- "Can you give me an example?"
- "What happened next?"
- "How did that make you feel?"
- "What would you do if [solution] existed?"

#### Closing (5 min)
- "Is there anything else I should know about this?"
- "Who else should I talk to about this?"
- "Would it be okay to follow up if I have more questions?"

### Questions to Avoid
- "Do you think it's a good idea?"
- "Would you use this?"
- "How much would you pay?"
- "What features would you want?"

Interview Analysis Template:

// lib/validation/interview-tracker.ts

interface Interview {
  id: string;
  date: Date;
  interviewee: {
    name: string;
    role: string;
    company: string;
    segment: string;
  };
  problemValidation: {
    hasProblem: boolean;
    frequency: 'daily' | 'weekly' | 'monthly' | 'rarely';
    severity: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5; // 1 = minor, 5 = critical
    currentSolutions: string[];
    willingToPay: boolean;
    budgetRange?: string;
  };
  quotes: string[];
  insights: string[];
  nextSteps: string[];
}

// Scoring framework
function calculateProblemScore(interviews: Interview[]): ProblemScore {
  const n = interviews.length;

  return {
    problemExists: interviews.filter(i => i.problemValidation.hasProblem).length / n,
    avgSeverity: interviews.reduce((sum, i) => sum + i.problemValidation.severity, 0) / n,
    frequency: calculateFrequencyScore(interviews),
    willingToPay: interviews.filter(i => i.problemValidation.willingToPay).length / n,
    recommendation: determineRecommendation(interviews)
  };
}

// Thresholds
// - Problem exists: > 70% should confirm
// - Avg severity: > 3.5 (it's a real pain)
// - Willing to pay: > 50% (validates monetization)

Phase 3: Market Sizing (3-5 days)#

Agents: business-analyst

Determine if the market is large enough to build a business.

Tasks:

Calculate TAM (Total Addressable Market)
Calculate SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market)
Calculate SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market)
Validate with industry data
Assess market trends

Market Sizing Framework:

## TAM/SAM/SOM Analysis

### TAM - Total Addressable Market
**Everyone who could possibly use this**

Calculation methods:
1. Top-down: Industry reports, total spending in category
2. Bottom-up: Number of potential customers × average price

Example (Developer Tools):
> 28 million software developers worldwide
> × $100/month average dev tool spend
> = $33.6 billion TAM

### SAM - Serviceable Addressable Market
**The portion of TAM you can realistically serve**

Filters:
- Geographic limitations
- Company size focus
- Specific use case

Example:
> Focus: B2B SaaS companies, 50-500 employees, English-speaking
> ~200,000 companies × 10 developers × $100/month
> = $2.4 billion SAM

### SOM - Serviceable Obtainable Market
**What you can realistically capture in 3-5 years**

Factors:
- Competitive landscape
- Go-to-market capability
- Resources available

Example:
> Target 1% of SAM in 5 years
> = $24 million ARR potential

Market Sizing Checklist:

## Market Research Sources

### Industry Data
- [ ] Gartner/Forrester reports
- [ ] Industry association reports
- [ ] Government statistics (Census, BLS)
- [ ] Publicly traded company filings (10-K, S-1)

### Competitor Data
- [ ] Competitor pricing pages
- [ ] Competitor case studies (customer counts)
- [ ] Crunchbase/PitchBook (funding, valuations)
- [ ] LinkedIn (company sizes)

### Primary Research
- [ ] Survey your interviewees
- [ ] Community polls (Reddit, Twitter)
- [ ] Expert interviews

### Validation Questions
- [ ] Is TAM > $1B? (needed for VC-scale)
- [ ] Is SAM > $100M? (meaningful market)
- [ ] Is market growing > 10%/year?
- [ ] Are there successful companies in adjacent spaces?

Phase 4: Competitor Analysis (3-5 days)#

Agents: business-analyst

Understand the competitive landscape and find your differentiation.

Tasks:

Identify direct and indirect competitors
Analyze competitor positioning
Identify gaps and opportunities
Define your differentiation
Validate differentiation with customers

Competitor Analysis Framework:

## Competitive Analysis Matrix

### Direct Competitors
Companies solving the same problem for the same customer

| Competitor | Target Customer | Pricing | Strengths | Weaknesses | Differentiation |
|------------|-----------------|---------|-----------|------------|-----------------|
| Competitor A | Enterprise | $500/mo | Brand, features | Expensive, complex | |
| Competitor B | SMB | $50/mo | Easy to use | Limited features | |
| Competitor C | Developers | Free/Pro | Community | No enterprise | |

### Indirect Competitors
Alternative solutions (including doing nothing)

| Alternative | Description | When Chosen | Our Advantage |
|-------------|-------------|-------------|---------------|
| Spreadsheets | Manual tracking | Low budget | Automation |
| Custom scripts | In-house solution | Developer teams | Maintained product |
| Do nothing | Accept the pain | Low priority | Show ROI |

### Competitive Positioning Map

                High Price
                    │
                    │     ○ Enterprise A
                    │
      ○ Legacy B    │
                    │
────────────────────┼────────────────────
Simple              │              Complex
                    │        ○ Modern C
                    │
       ★ Our        │
       Position     │
                    │
                Low Price

Legend: ○ = Competitor ★ = Our target position


### Differentiation Hypothesis

**Why will customers choose us over alternatives?**

Possible differentiators:
- [ ] Price (cheaper, different model)
- [ ] Ease of use (simpler, faster time-to-value)
- [ ] Features (unique capability, better integration)
- [ ] Focus (niche segment, specific use case)
- [ ] Service (better support, implementation)
- [ ] Technology (faster, more accurate, more scalable)

Our differentiation:
> [Clear statement of why we win]

Competitor Research Checklist:

## Competitor Research Tasks

### For Each Competitor
- [ ] Sign up for free trial
- [ ] Read all marketing copy
- [ ] Watch demo videos
- [ ] Read customer reviews (G2, Capterra)
- [ ] Check social media presence
- [ ] Read their blog/content
- [ ] Note pricing and packaging
- [ ] Identify target customer
- [ ] List key features
- [ ] Note integrations

### Analysis Questions
- What do customers love about them?
- What do customers complain about?
- What features are missing?
- What customer segments are underserved?
- Where is their marketing weak?
- What's their pricing strategy?

Starting the Workflow#

# Start problem validation workflow
bootspring workflow start seed-validation

# Create problem hypothesis
bootspring seed hypothesis create

# Track interview progress
bootspring seed interviews list

# Calculate market size
bootspring seed market analyze

Deliverables#

A successful Problem Validation workflow produces:

Problem hypothesis document
10+ customer interview summaries
Interview analysis with pattern identification
TAM/SAM/SOM market sizing
Competitor analysis matrix
Differentiation hypothesis
Go/no-go recommendation

Validation Decision Framework#

## Should You Proceed?

### Strong Validation (Green Light)
- 70%+ of interviewees confirm problem
- Average severity 4+/5
- 50%+ willing to pay
- SAM > $100M
- Clear differentiation identified

### Moderate Validation (Proceed with Caution)
- 50-70% confirm problem
- Average severity 3-4/5
- Some willingness to pay
- SAM $50-100M
- Differentiation requires testing

### Weak Validation (Pivot or Stop)
- < 50% confirm problem
- Average severity < 3/5
- Few willing to pay
- SAM < $50M
- No clear differentiation

### Red Flags
- Nobody has the problem
- Problem exists but nobody cares
- Solving it requires behavior change
- Market is declining
- Winner-take-all with clear winner

Best Practices#

Talk to strangers - Friends and family give biased feedback
Seek disconfirmation - Try to prove yourself wrong
Follow the energy - Note what makes people excited/frustrated
Get specific - Generalities are useless, examples are gold
Iterate quickly - Update hypothesis after each batch of interviews
Document everything - Your future self will thank you

Common Pitfalls#

Asking leading questions
Only talking to people who agree with you
Falling in love with solution before validating problem
Insufficient interviews (need 10+ for patterns)
Ignoring negative signals
Confusing "interesting" with "will pay"