How to spot painful problems and build software that solves them
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Listen to the Reddit Audience Research Guide
Ever wished you could listen to a conversational breakdown of the "Scratch Their Itch" series instead of reading through all four parts? I've got you covered. Your audio companion to better audience research I've turned my entire four-part Reddit research series into an interactive
Why I made the Reddit Audience Research guide
Most advice about finding startup ideas sounds a lot like, “Just talk to customers!” as if the perfect problem is waiting patiently for you to ask the right questions. But that advice is way easier to tweet than to actually do. If you've ever stared at your blank
“I can create anything but people don’t convert”
When demand exists but dollars don't Let's play doctor for your SaaS. You've shipped. You've hustled up some traffic. Maybe you even have a nice pile of free signups. And yet… the paid user number isn't moving. This is the
How to abandon a project without regrets
I used to be way too attached to my work. Back when I ran a design sprint agency, every workshop ended with a ritual that made my stomach twist: we'd all stick our solutions up on the wall for everyone to see. Then came the vote. One idea
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The mistake that kills most products before they start
When most of us start building products, we begin with an idea: "I'll build a better project management tool" "I'll create an AI writing assistant" "I'll make a simpler analytics dashboard" "I'll disrupt [insert any
Feeling stuck comparing yourself to competitors? Read this
Praveen was doing Europe like he’d always dreamed — cheap flights, overnight trains, hostels full of strangers-turned-friends. He carried everything in a 20L backpack. No check-ins. No plans. Just a rail pass, a rough sketch of cities to hit, and the thrill of figuring it out along the way Meanwhile,
How to break free from the infinite research loop
"Just one more competitor to check..." It starts innocently enough. A quick search here, a comparison there. But before you know it, you're three months deep with 47 Chrome tabs open, caught in an endless loop of research → doubt → more research. Each new tab promising the
How I use Reddit to find and validate problems worth building
You've heard it all, right? "Create a landing page first!" "No, talk to people first!" "Collect emails!" "Get pre-bookings!" "Build an MVP first!" It feels like everyone shouts different advice, leaving you stuck asking, "What are some
So you want to copy that successful startup
I understand why you'd want to copy a successful startup. It feels safe. When you see someone post their $10K MRR milestone on Twitter or share their journey on Indie Hackers, you know there's a real market. Real customers. Real revenue. Why take a chance on
Scratch their itch (4 part guide)
A four-part guide to finding problems your customers will pay you to solve using Reddit audience research. Each part builds on the previous one, taking you from initial research to demand validation. Praise for the series: Part 1: Finding Real Customer Problems in the Wild Learn how to discover where
Tired of guessing what your audience cares about?
You already know the pain of staring at your analytics, wondering why your tweet/LinkedIn post/blog or product didn't resonate. You put in the hours, made educated guesses, and still found yourself feeling uncertain. I previously taught you how to validate startup ideas using Reddit. But here&
What’s your problem?
Last Tuesday, I caught myself doing something ridiculous. Copy text from Slack. Switch to TypingMind. Paste. Get AI rewrite. Copy again. Switch back. Paste. For the tenth time. That day. That's when I realized my daily frustration wasn't just annoying - it was trying to tell
How to find your first 100 users without spending a dime
"If you had to grow a SaaS with $0 marketing budget, what's your first move?" I see this question pop up constantly in founder communities. "We've built this amazing product, but we don't have cash for ads. How do we get
Is it a bad idea to start a business when competitors already exist?
"Someone's already doing it" - the lie that kills great businesses before they start. Picture this. You walk into a party where everyone seems deep in conversation. Inside jokes are flying, groups have already formed, and your first instinct is to turn around and leave. That&
How to plan out your SaaS growth
"We need more marketing!" That's what the SaaS founders insisted when we looked at their numbers. What they didn't realize? With their 0.2% conversion rate and $27 ARPU, they'd need nearly one million visitors (926,000 to be exact) just to
The tech founders guide to selling before building
If you build it, they will do absolutely nothing. - Patrick McKenzie (@patio11) Six months of your life. Countless late nights. Thousands of lines of code. And then... silence. No users. No sales. Just the crushing realization that you might have built something nobody wants. If you're a
Audience analysis using Reddit: A step-by-step guide with an example
"I've sent 47 cold outreach messages this week trying to land customer interviews. Two people replied. Neither had time to talk." Sound familiar? That's why we're building a better research system: * In part 1, we mapped Reddit's hidden network to
How to find "shut up and take my money" problems using Reddit
"Looks interesting, but I wouldn't pay for it." If you're building products, you've probably heard some version of this soul-crushing feedback. You spend weeks or months crafting what you think is the solution, only to discover you're solving a problem
How to find real customer problems in the wild
"Is this actually a pain point for you?" That's the kind of question that puts your research dead on arrival. Here's why: When you ask someone if they have a problem, you get their sanitized, rational self. But when you catch them actively struggling
"The demo is in 5 hours": How panic taught us a better way to prototype with v0
“We just scheduled a demo with a potential user. They want to see the new sales dashboard for feedback. Can you have something ready by 2PM?” That Slack message from my founders hit me like a bucket of cold water. I looked at my screen: one barely-functional dashboard card, a
How to make your product spread to new networks (without changing what makes it great)
Ever notice something strange about project management software? Jira dominates engineering but can't crack marketing teams. Notion captures creative agencies but struggles with traditional PMOs. Monday thrives with agencies but falters with dev teams. Basecamp endures with small teams while enterprise goes elsewhere. In this post, you'
Do you really need to talk to 50 people before working on a product?
Imagine you're trying to fix an unusual noise in your car. Would you rather: A) Post in 50 different Facebook groups and forums, getting opinions from casual drivers, people who owned a different model 10 years ago, and 'car enthusiasts' who've never touched your
How to extract real voice of customer data from Reddit (without ever doing an interview)
You've seen the promises: AI will “revolutionize” your customer research, generating deep insights in seconds. But when you dive into the results, disappointment hits. The insights feel thin, lifeless—like something's missing. It's not just you. Recently, Matt Lerner from SYSTM talked about this
Your customer’s truth is on Capterra
Ok, here's something ridiculous about customer research. (The good kind of ridiculous.) You know all those insights you're breaking your brain trying to find? They're literally just... sitting there. Already collected. Already organized. Just waiting for you to grab them. I'm serious.
My brain was making pain points way too complicated (until this clicked)
You know what used to drive me nuts? I'd sit there staring at my customer research thinking, "Well, if someone has a problem, they have a problem, right? Why complicate it?" Man, was I wrong. See, I used to think that if someone was struggling with
Running "the money test" after the mom test
You've spent weeks, maybe even months, validating your product idea. You've watched all the videos, read all the advice, and conducted countless user interviews. Everyone agrees: "Make sure it's something people want." But now you're left wondering, "Apart from
How to shed the fear of talking to customers
I started learning design and strategy to get people to buy and use the projects I had spent months coding. Thanks to my extroverted co-founder, Mayun, I had the opportunity to approach anyone and showcase a prototype. It made it easy for me as an introvert. Talking to people used
Why sequencing matters more than customer outcomes when building software
Dependency-based sequencing is a powerful technique for managing complex projects. By mapping out the interrelationships between tasks and prioritizing based on dependencies, you can minimize rework, enable smoother workflows, and achieve project goals faster.
Debugging development cycles with Lightning Decision Jam
It was the 12th day of our development cycle for the new “Leads” feature, and my tech lead looked like he wanted me dead. The team worked long hours, fueled by lattes and the pressure to deliver. Despite our best efforts, our Linear board was growing more than it was