At this stage, you have identified several promising problems. The objective now is to validate, refine, and quantify those problems through structured research and direct customer engagement.
This is where most opportunities either become real—or fall apart.
Start With Structured Research (Not Just “Googling”)
Before engaging customers, build a baseline understanding of the space.
Focus on:
- Industry structure and key players
- Existing solutions (and their limitations)
- Estimated cost or impact of the problem
- Regulatory, certification, or operational constraints
- Industry-specific language and terminology
Useful sources include:
- Trade publications
- Company annual reports and investor materials
- Technical papers and white papers
- Conference presentations and panels
The goal is not expertise—it is credibility and context. You should be able to speak the language and avoid asking uninformed questions.
You can find a list of publications by industry here.
Identify the Full Customer Ecosystem
Your “customer” is not a single person.
In most B2B environments, the buying process includes multiple roles:
- User — experiences the problem directly
- Buyer — controls the budget
- Decision-maker — approves the purchase
- Influencers — shape the decision (positively or negatively)
You need to understand all of them.
If you only talk to users, you risk building something that never gets funded.
If you only talk to executives, you risk missing operational reality.
Conduct Targeted Customer Interviews
For B2B opportunities, a useful target is:
- ~10–30 high-quality conversations
Quality matters more than volume. These should be real discussions, not superficial surveys.
If you have properly scoped your problem within a domain you understand or have access to, this is achievable through your network, LinkedIn, and industry contacts.
What to Learn (Not Just What to Ask)
The objective is not to “pitch” or validate your idea. It is to understand:
- How the problem actually manifests
- How severe it is (time, cost, risk)
- How it is currently addressed
- How decisions are made
- Where budget authority sits
Example lines of inquiry:
Context
- What is your role and responsibility?
- How does this problem show up in your day-to-day operations?
Problem Severity
- How much time or effort does this consume?
- What is the impact in dollars, schedule, or risk?
- Who else in the organization is affected?
Current State
- How is this handled today?
- What works and what does not?
Economics & Budget
- Is there an existing budget for this?
- Who owns it?
- How are purchases like this justified?
Decision Process
- How are decisions made?
- Who needs to approve?
- What would block adoption?
Solution Framing (Light Touch)
- What would an ideal solution look like?
- What would make it compelling enough to act?
Avoid leading questions. You are not confirming your idea—you are discovering reality.
Synthesize What You Learn
After interviews, you should be able to clearly define:
- The real customer (not just the user)
- The buying process
- The economic value of solving the problem
- The barriers to adoption
At this stage, each opportunity should be updated into a refined 1-pager:
- Validated problem statement
- Customer segmentation (user, buyer, decision-maker)
- Quantified impact
- Current alternatives
- Key objections and risks
If you cannot clearly articulate these, the opportunity is not ready.
Example: What We Learned
After speaking with ground crew, maintenance staff, and operations leadership:User (pain):
Ground crew lose time retrieving replacement batons; maintenance staff are pulled into low-value battery replacement workBuyer (decision):
Terminal managers evaluate solutions based on operational reliability and staffing impactPayer (budget):
Regional airport operations leadership ultimately owns the budget and cost savingsEconomic driver:
Recurring spend on batteries, labor, and excess inventory—not the baton itself—is the real cost
Common Failure Modes
Most teams get this phase wrong:
- Talking to too few customers
- Talking only to friendly or accessible contacts
- Leading the conversation toward their solution
- Ignoring budget and procurement realities
- Overestimating willingness-to-pay
The result is false confidence and weak opportunities.
Guiding Principles
- Stay problem-focused longer than is comfortable
- Listen more than you talk
- Look for consistency across interviews
- Follow the budget, not just the pain
Early Signal: Pre-Sell Behavior
As understanding improves, begin testing demand indirectly:
- Gauge willingness to engage further
- Explore pilot or trial interest
- Assess openness to paid engagement
You are not selling yet—but you are observing buying behavior.
Example: Value Proposition Begins to Emerge
Eliminating battery replacement reduces labor cost, battery spend, and the need for excess equipment inventory—while improving operational reliability for ground crews.
Bottom Line
- Validate the problem with real customers
- Map the full buying ecosystem
- Quantify economic impact and budget ownership
- Identify barriers to adoption early
If customers do not clearly acknowledge the problem and its value, the opportunity is not viable.
Transition
With a validated problem, defined customer, and quantified value, the next step is to develop and refine a solution, product, or service that directly addresses what the market has confirmed it needs.
For more on this, see my Sales Primer.