TL;DR: Don’t build a solution looking for a problem. To see if your idea has real potential, find out if it solves a strong pain, if people are actively searching for a solution right now, and what you can learn from the existing competition. Answering these questions first saves you from building something nobody wants.
We’ve seen it happen too many times. A beautifully designed app, a clever service, a product built with passion—all failing to get traction. The reason is almost always the same: they were a solution looking for a problem.
Falling in love with an idea is easy. It’s exciting. But building a business on assumption is like navigating without a map. You might end up somewhere, but probably not where you intended.
At UNQA, our first job is to make sure we’re building the right thing. We do that by starting with a simple, powerful test. It’s not about complex data models; it’s about finding the truth. It’s a three-question litmus test that anyone can use to see if their idea is standing on solid ground.
The Simple Truth About Great Business Ideas
The best business ideas aren’t just “cool.” They don’t get validated by friends saying, “Wow, that’s neat!”
The truth is much simpler: great businesses solve real problems for real people.
True validation sounds like someone asking, “This is exactly what I need. Where can I buy it?” Your job isn’t to create a need; it’s to find an existing one and offer a better way to meet it. This test helps you do just that.
The 3-Question Test to Find Your Truth
Before you write a line of code, design a logo, or spend a single dollar on ads, take a step back and answer these three questions honestly.
Question 1: Is There Real Pain, Urgency, or Passion?
First, you need to figure out if your idea is a painkiller or a vitamin. A vitamin is nice to have. It might offer a small improvement. A painkiller solves an immediate, frustrating, and costly problem. People will go out of their way to find a painkiller; they might forget to take their vitamins.
Does your idea address…
- A strong pain point? Something that is actively frustrating for people.
- A sense of urgency? A problem that needs to be solved now.
- An irrational passion? A deep interest or hobby that people pour their time and money into.
If your idea doesn’t hit at least one of these, you’ll spend all your energy trying to convince people they need you, instead of helping people who already know they do.
How to find the answer: Go where people are already talking. Read Amazon reviews for similar products (especially the 2, 3, and 4-star reviews). Browse Reddit communities and online forums. Listen for the exact words people use to describe their frustrations and what they wish they had. That language is gold.
Question 2: Are People Actively Looking for a Solution?
Having a problem is one thing. Actively looking for a way to solve it is another. It’s much easier to sell water to someone in the desert than to someone who doesn’t feel thirsty.
When people are actively looking for a solution, it means a market already exists. You don’t have to educate them on the problem—your only job is to show them you have the best solution.
How to find the answer: Use a free keyword research tool (like Google Keyword Planner). Are people searching for terms related to your idea? For example, if you have an idea for a tool that organizes recipes, are people searching for “recipe organization app” or “how to save online recipes”? The volume of these searches tells you if the river of demand is already flowing. If nobody is searching, you’ll have to dig that river yourself.
Question 3: Who Is Already There (and What Can They Teach Us)?
Many people see competitors and get discouraged. We see them as proof. The presence of competition is the ultimate validation that a market exists—it proves people are already spending money to solve the problem you’re looking at.
Your competitors are free teachers. They’ve already spent their time and money figuring out what works. You can learn from their successes and their mistakes.
How to find the answer: Don’t just look at what your competitors sell; look at how they sell it.
- What is their core message?
- What do their marketing funnels look like?
- What kinds of ads are they running? (You can see this in the Facebook Ads Library).
- What are their customers saying about them in reviews and on social media?
This isn’t about copying them. It’s about understanding the landscape so you can find your unique place within it.
Build on Evidence, Not Hope
Answering these three questions gives you a foundation of evidence. It replaces “I think” with “I know.” It moves you from hoping your idea works to building something that the world is already asking for.
This is a more natural, sustainable, and ultimately more successful way to build.
Ready to build something people actually want? Let’s have a chat. We can start with a discovery session to validate your vision together.