Perspective · Customer insight

Paul Graham

Explain a problem people actually have.

customer needs
founders
early customers
manual work
ideas

Paul Graham — Explain a problem people actually have

Inherited source references. Read the original before attributing advice to the person. These applications are not quotations or an official collaboration.

Start with an observed situation and show how you help the customer in it.

Use early conversations and concrete manual work to learn, without presenting individual cases as universal evidence.

Questions to work with:

When did the problem last occur?

Which specific help would the customer accept?

Sources from the original project:

The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups: why startups fail to make something users want
https://paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

How to Get Startup Ideas: live in the future, notice what's missing, build what's interesting
https://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

Startup = Growth: why growth rate is the compass for every startup decision
https://paulgraham.com/growth.html

Use this perspective to examine the brief. Write directly in English in the brand’s voice. Preserve facts and terms; do not use the person’s name as product evidence.

Image source ↗ · via The Brains

How to use Paul Graham’s perspective

Start with an observed situation and show how you help the customer in it.
Use early conversations and concrete manual work to learn, without presenting individual cases as universal evidence.

Our own applications for copy – not quotations and not an endorsement.

Questions to work with

When did the problem last occur?
Which specific help would the customer accept?

Sources from the original project

Inherited source references. Read the original before attributing advice to the person. These applications are not quotations or an official collaboration.

Frameworks that pair with this perspective

Eugene Schwartz · MessagingStart where the reader isEugene Schwartz describes five levels of awareness, from not seeing the problem at all to being ready to buy. The more…Robert Cialdini · MessagingGive the reader reasons to trustChoose the evidence that answers the reader's doubt – other customers, expertise, a generous first step or a genuine…Joanna Wiebe / Copyhackers · Customer insightTake your words from customersJoanna Wiebe and Copyhackers argue that copy starts with research: gather how customers themselves describe the…

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