5 - Deciding What To Start: The Problem Space
My last post set out the choice to start a startup, a specific type of business designed to grow very fast, as opposed to a non-startup. It explained my approach of starting 100% with the customer problem before thinking about ideas for products or services to sell. And it laid out my framework (abbreviated below) of minimum and ideal criteria for assessing different problem spaces:
Minimum Criteria
A worthy problem that I am inspired by
That I can compelling answer “why me?” as being best placed to address
That it is a huge opportunity
Ideal Criteria
Attracts the best in the world as team members
Opportunity to delight customers
That Jess, my wife, is excited by it and interested in talking about it
Here’s how I applied this framework to considering different problem spaces. At various points below, I have copied and pasted from the notes I made in going through this process.
Overarching Considerations
I was very conscious of maintaining a wide frame in considering different problem spaces. It was important not to narrowly frame myself as an accounting tech entrepreneur. I’d spent seven years as an entrepreneur followed by a year of consulting in that industry. There was a risk I ended up there passively by default (bad) vs actively by choice (good). I re-read the excellent Decisive by Chip & Dan Heath, which argues compellingly that the simple act of surfacing multiple options, even if we ultimately decide against them, helps us make better choices. And cites how “whether or not” decisions were found to fail 52% of the time, as opposed to decisions with two or more alternatives that failed 32% of the time. I wanted to cast the widest possible net in considering problem spaces.
Trends
I made a list of important trends to help me think about different problem spaces:
Remote/flexible working
China rise to world’s largest economy
Blockchain/crypto
Subscriptionisation
Time stretched increasing challenge of maintaining essentialist focus on what matters in life
Coaching/therapy
Elderly care
Lifespan extension
Paying for retirement
Move away from fossil fuels
Multiple careers - the need to manage oneself with lifelong learning
These trends weren’t designed to be exhaustive. You’ll see that a number have little relationship to the list of problem spaces I came up with. Their function was to make sure that I didn’t miss any problem spaces that might otherwise have hidden in plain sight.
The Long List
With reference to those trends and using my minimum and ideal criteria, I came up with the following problem spaces:
Professional services are an insanely expensive interpretation layer to access a public good (the law). Client experience is generally poor - no real understanding, tailored advice and help. On the clock paying for time vs what want is a subscription product where you know what you’re getting and will pay for extras. No proactive identification of win-win opportunities to deliver expert knowledge. Access to professional advice undemocratic and off limits to vast majority
Distribution of products and services that are for SMEs - distribution a huge challenge in dead zone between one to many consumer marketing and sales for larger business customers
The sales invoice is an anachronism - legacy of paper age. Shouldn’t need a separate object. Is just a way of relaying info from one party to another
Smartphone generation about to enter nursing homes. Experience is pretty bleak. Could tech improve patient experience. But also family members who aren’t there
Struggle to read everything I want with the limited time I have. And struggle to know what most important things to focus on are
No idea what right career is for me. Need to avoid the situation where salary trapped in wrong work. And need to lifelong learn. No-one coming at recruitment from candidate’s perspective
Expensive and really hard to find a buyer for my small business
Computer science literacy essential for 21st century. How get my kids into in same way as Rugbytots and Little Kickers
Cloud data - I will lose / not be able to transfer if I cancel my subscription
Funerals hugely important and sensitive to organise - I need to be sure I do it right. But daunting as have no idea about
Businesses really have no deep idea who customers are - what going on in industry etc
The Short List
After writing the long list, I gave it a couple of days before deciding which of those eleven problem spaces I wanted to explore more deeply. After applying my minimum and ideal criteria to each, I wrote the following note:
“1, 5 and 6. If there is a solution I can conceive of there with the opportunity to make it happen, just don’t see a way that any of the others in their biggest manifestations could surpass. They are all worthy fallbacks. But only worth exploring if can’t get clear conviction around 1, 5 or 6”
That gave me a short list of three problem spaces that I summarised as:
Professional services
Reading
Careers
In my next post, I’ll detail how I settled on and validated my chosen problem space. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!