# Validate the problem

Test whether a real, painful problem exists before you write code: a problem brief, honest interviews and a written decision.

Canonical URL: https://worldenterprise.org/playbooks/validate-the-problem/
Last updated: 2026-10-10
Publisher: World Enterprise, run by World Enterprise Group Incorporated

## The steps

1. **Write the problem brief.** State who has the problem, what they do about it today and why that is not good enough, on one page. If you cannot write it plainly, you are not ready to interview anyone.
2. **List the assumptions that would sink the idea.** Separate what you know from what you hope. Rank each assumption by how badly the idea fails if it is wrong, then test the top ones first.
3. **Find people who have the problem.** Recruit from the group your brief describes, not from friends. Prefer people who dealt with the problem recently, because recent behavior is better evidence than opinion.
4. **Interview about the past, not the future.** Ask what happened the last time, what they tried and what it cost them. Keep your solution out of the conversation. Write notes the same day, in the same format every time.
5. **Look for commitment, not compliments.** Praise costs nothing. Evidence is time, access, money or a written pilot commitment. Record each person's response honestly, including a plain no.
6. **Decide, and write the decision down.** Set what you learned against your assumptions. Choose to continue, change the problem or stop, and write the evidence behind the choice so someone else can read it.

## What you will have at the end

- A one-page problem brief
- An ordered list of assumptions with a status for each
- Interview notes in a single format
- A written decision to continue, change or stop, with the evidence behind it