Customers & Research

How do I tell the difference between a nice-to-have problem and one people will actually change their behavior to fix?

A starting point

A real problem shows up in what people already do about it: they've cobbled together a workaround, they're paying for a bad substitute, or they've complained loudly and recently. A nice-to-have gets nods but no evidence of effort. As a starting point, for every problem you hear, ask what they've already tried and spent, because a painkiller has a trail of failed attempts behind it while a vitamin has nothing.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

2 resources 2 link-checked

Read

✍️ Essay
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This is the sharpest short framework for the exact question: is the problem a nice-to-have (vitamin) or something people are actively hurting from (painkiller). Rhea's most useful test is a gut check on your own interviews, if you find yourself convincing a prospect they have a problem, or getting excited every time you catch a glimpse of it, that is a warning sign you have a vitamin. It reframes the judgment from what you hope is true to what customers already feel without you nudging them.

Are You Building a Vitamin or a Painkiller? Why Painkillers Always Win

From brianrhea.com by Brian Rhea About a 7 minute read

  • Painkillers get bought without reminders because the pain is already felt; vitamins get put off because the need is theoretical and non-urgent.
  • If you are talking a prospect into believing they have the problem during an interview, you are probably looking at a vitamin, real pain shows up on its own.
  • Find the pain first through honest customer conversations, then design the fix, not the other way around.
Open brianrhea.com →
📖 Book
✓ Link checked Paid Intermediate

Why we picked it Judging whether people will actually change their behavior comes down to how well you can hear intensity in what they say, and this is the most practical book on doing exactly that. Hansen, a bootstrapped SaaS founder, walks through the specific questions and listening moves that get past polite answers to the real emotional weight behind a stated problem. It is the how-to that makes the vitamin versus painkiller judgment something you can actually do in a live conversation instead of guessing.

Deploy Empathy: A Practical Guide to Interviewing Customers

From deployempathy.com by Michele Hansen Full book, roughly 250 pages

  • Ask about the last time someone hit the problem and what they did about it; workarounds and effort reveal true intensity better than a rating of how much it bothers them.
  • People soften and rationalize their pain, so listen for emotion, hesitation, and the stuff they already spend money or time on to cope.
  • Behavior in the past is the honest signal, if they never built a workaround or paid to escape it, the problem is likely a nice-to-have.
Open deployempathy.com →

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