Unconditional love for the Solution that leads to building something nobody wants.

When pressed to think in terms of problems, entrepreneurs often unconsciously invent or fake problems to justify building their solution by asking themselves:

• What problem could my solution solve?

  versus

• What problem do my customers have?

When entrepreneurs get hit with an idea, they rush to build out a solution.

Starting with a solution, is like building a key without a door. You then have to face the hard work of figuring out what door to open. This is the classic solution looking for a problem challenge. Even if you start with a smaller solution (like a minimum viable product), unless your solution nails some customer problem, it won’t get noticed.

And then the build trap ensues. This is where you end up chasing the mythical killer feature by trying out one thing after another. Sure you could get lucky and hit an accidental breakthrough this way. But this approach is sub-optimal.

A better alternative is switching perspective. When you start with problems before solutions, you first identify the door you want to open. Key building, or solution building, becomes a lot easier after that.