Needs arise in context—they are not context-free facts

When you search for needs or jobs in the way I outlined earlier, your underlying theory is that there is an objective set of hidden desires. You are looking for essences . You’re adopting the rationalist view that these inherent properties not only exist, but can be discovered and enumerated

Nobody wants your product until they want what it enables them to do. To get this clarity about what someone wants to be able to do, you need to understand the struggle that caused them to shape that idea and motivation of an unmet goal. If you can uncover that, you have a good bet of solving the “right” problem.

But as any experienced founder knows, this process is fractal.

The deeper you get into asking questions about a person’s day, the more detail there is to observe. And true needs or jobs—the ones that are burning or unfulfilled—get lost in the process of mapping the infinite contours of an individual life.

What actually works? Drop the objectivity.