Far too many entrepreneurs and corporate innovation teams fall in love with their solution, instead of the problem they’re solving or the value they’re supposed to be creating for customers.

Oftentimes, they jump to conclusions and then blame the market for not being ready for their product or being too archaic or not knowing what’s good for them.

The reality is they didn’t do the work to figure out what customers really want and what they are willing to pay for.

If you’ve read Steve Blank’s Startup Owner’s Manual or Ash Maurya’s Running Lean, you should be familiar with the Problem Interview (if you haven’t, you should, along with these 18 other innovation must-reads).

The problem interview is step one in the process of finding a problem worth solving.

The interview focuses on three things:

1. Problem

• What do you think the problems are
• How do customers rate and rank these problems out of 10
• What other problems do they have that you’ve missed

2. Alternatives

• How do customers currently solve this problem
• Are they more or less content with the existing solution
• How do they feel about switching to a new product that they had to pay for?

3. Customer Segments

• Which customer segment resonates with this problem the most?

Source: StartItUp.com

Step 1: Collect Demographics (Test Customer Segment)

First, as with a lean canvas, you want to start with the customer segment.

Factors you might consider:

• Age
• Gender
• Occupation
• How they make decisions
• Where they hang out online
• Where they hang out offline
• Etc.

A word of caution on demographicsWho am I?I am a male.I am very wealthy.I was born in 1948.I grew up in England. I am a successful business person.I have been married twice.I have two children.

Any guesses?