How I Start Product Research

A product starts with an idea, an insight into how something could be better. If something has room to improve, then there's a problem involved. So, in reality, a product answers a problem.

The first research is the one that helps validate or invalidate this problem. So here's what I try to cover:

• Who experiences this problem? This reveals the potential audience that will care the most for my solution.

• What's the history behind it? Where does it start? The answer for this one allows me to build a user journey so that I understand the problem within a context

• What's the cost of it? If I know the time, money, stress, or anything that this problem causes, that will be how I start future conversations with potential users. Or even invalidate the problem if people don't experience relevant pain there.

• How are these people solving or trying to solve this problem? So I understand solutions that are at least valid, uncover valuable patterns, and even find a price point for my solution and set my expectations accordingly

Since this is highly exploratory, I try to talk to at least 20 people, mainly because you might end up talking to folks who don't care that much about the problem.