What “finding your audience” really means
You're not looking for “users.” You're looking for a specific group of people who experience the pain frequently, feel it urgently, and have authority (or influence) to buy.
- Frequent: it happens often enough to matter.
- Urgent: they feel the cost when it happens.
- Buyer-aware: they can approve spend, influence it, or route you to the person who can.
- Already paying somehow: money, tools, contractors, overtime, or manual labor.
“I want to talk to [role] at [type of company / situation] who struggle with [pain] because it causes [cost/risk].”
Step 1: Start with a tight ICP-lite
Before outreach, write a tiny ICP. Keep it narrow. You're not designing your final market strategy—you're trying to find 10-20 people who can truthfully tell you whether the problem matters.
ICP-lite template
- Role / title
- Context (industry, size, stage)
- Trigger event (what causes the pain?)
- Current workaround
- Consequence if ignored
- Who approves spend?
Example
- Role: Office manager (20-200 person company)
- Trigger: onboarding new hires monthly
- Workaround: spreadsheets + email
- Consequence: delays, missed tasks, compliance risk
- Spend: HR Director / Ops
Step 2: 12 reliable ways to find your audience
Pick 2-3 methods, not 12. You want speed and repetition.
Fast, high-signal methods
- 1) Your existing network: former coworkers, clients, vendors. Ask for intros, not sales.
- 2) LinkedIn search (B2B): filter by title, industry, company size.
- 3) Industry associations: local chapters, professional groups, meetups.
- 4) Job postings: if they hire to solve it, the problem is real.
Community + behavior-based methods
- 5) LinkedIn groups: observe first, then post a research ask.
- 6) Slack/Discord communities: niche founder and operator groups.
- 7) Reddit: useful for pain language; don't be spammy.
- 8) Podcasts / YouTube comments: creators attract the audience; comments reveal vocabulary.
Market intelligence methods
- 9) Competitor reviews: G2/Capterra/Google/app stores—mine frustration and unmet needs.
- 10) Conferences/webinars: speakers/sponsors reveal the buyer ecosystem.
- 11) Cold email: works when your pain statement is precise and respectful.
- 12) “In the workflow” targeting: target users of tools where the problem lives (e.g., Jira, QuickBooks).
Step 3: How to ask for the conversation (without sounding like a pitch)
Your outreach should be research-only. Time-boxed. Clear. No features. No deck.
Hey [Name] — quick question. I'm researching how [role] teams handle [problem].
I'm not selling anything; I'm trying to understand the workflow and what it costs when it breaks.
Would you be open to a 15-minute call next week? I can work around your schedule.
If you're not the right person, who would you recommend I talk to?
Step 4: The conversation structure (repeatable)
Aim for 20-30 minutes. Use the same structure every time. You're building a dataset, not collecting vibes.
1) Context (2-3 minutes)
- “Tell me about your role and what a normal week looks like.”
2) Story mode (10 minutes)
- “Walk me through the last time this happened.”
- “What triggered it?”
- “What did you do first?”
- “Where did it get annoying?”
3) Cost and consequence (5-7 minutes)
- “What did this cost you?” (time, money, risk, stress)
- “Who else gets impacted?”
- “How often does this happen?”
4) Current solution + dissatisfaction (5 minutes)
- “How do you handle this today?”
- “What do you like about that approach?”
- “What do you hate?”
- “What have you tried before?”
Step 5: “Willingness to pay” without pitching features
Don't ask “Would you pay for my app?” Ask questions that force real tradeoffs.
- “If this problem disappeared tomorrow, what would that be worth?”
- “Do you have budget for solving problems like this?”
- “Have you paid for anything to address it already?”
- “If you were evaluating a solution, what would you expect to pay?”
- They quantify cost (“6 hours/week,” “$X/month,” “missed revenue”)
- They talk about approval paths and budget owners
- They ask: “When can I try it?” (unprompted)
- They introduce you to others with the same pain
Strong vs weak signals
Strong signals ✅
- They describe the pain without your help
- They quantify time/money/risk
- They've already spent money to fix it
- They ask for next steps
- They offer intros
Weak signals ❌
- “That's interesting”
- “We'd use that” (no urgency, no cost)
- “If it was cheap…”
- They can't recall a recent example
- They do nothing today to mitigate the pain
Step 6: Track the 10-20 conversations like evidence
After each call, capture the same fields. Consistency makes patterns obvious.
- Audience segment: role + context
- Pain score: 1-5
- Frequency: daily / weekly / monthly
- Current workaround
- Cost: time / $ / risk
- WTP signal: weak / medium / strong
- Best quote: in their words
- Follow-up? yes / no
Exit criteria for Idea → Problem Definition
You can move to the next step when the evidence is consistent—not when you feel excited.
- You completed 10-20 conversations.
- Multiple people independently describe the same pain.
- You can state the problem clearly without mentioning features.
- You've seen at least a few strong willingness-to-pay signals.
Suggested reading
Uri Levine's Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs is one of the best mental models for this phase.
Book link
I don't get paid for clicks or book sales—it's just a really great book I've read or listened to multiple times.
Printable checklist
If you can't check a box, that's not failure—it's a signal to slow down and validate.
Before you build…
- “What's your role and what are you responsible for?”
- “Tell me about the last time you experienced [problem].”
- “How often does that happen?”
- “What does it cost you?”
- “How do you handle it today?”
- “What's frustrating about that?”
- “Have you spent money to address this?”
- “If this was solved, what would it be worth?”
- “Who else should I talk to?”