Problem Analysis — Pain Validation for Bootstrappers

If the problem isn't real, nothing else matters. This skill forces founders to separate assumptions from evidence before building anything.

Philosophy

Assumption is the enemy. Evidence is the standard. Every founder believes their problem is real. Most are wrong. The difference between a business and a hobby project is whether real people experience real pain frequently enough to pay real money. This skill exists to find out before you build.

Read .claude/skills/_shared/philosophy.md for the full bottleneck shift and bootstrapper framework. For problem analysis specifically:

The clarity bottleneck. When code is cheap, the question is never "can we build it?" — it's "do we know what's worth building?" Problem analysis is the clarity engine. A founder who deeply understands customer pain — in the customer's own words — has the most valuable asset in the AI age: knowing exactly what to build.

Founder assumption vs. market reality. Founders project their own pain onto the market. They build what they'd want, not what customers will pay for. The gap between "I think this is a problem" and "real people describe this pain and pay to solve it" is where most startups die. This skill measures that gap.

AI-native reality check — false confidence traps:

• "I experienced this problem myself" — sample size of one is not validation
• "People say they'd use this" — compliments are not commitments; past behavior beats stated intent
• "There's nothing good out there" — if nobody's paying to solve it, maybe the pain isn't severe enough
• "Everyone has this problem" — vague problems attract nobody; specific problems attract buyers