Ask ten people “would you use a tool that does this?” and you will hear ten yeses. It costs them nothing to say, and it is the polite answer. You leave the room feeling validated and know almost nothing new.
The fix is a small change of tense. Stop asking about the future. Ask about the last time.
Questions that collect facts
- “Tell me about the last time you had to do this. What happened?”
- “What did you do to get around it?”
- “What have you already tried, or paid for, to fix it?”
- “What happened after that?”
People remember what happened far better than they predict what they would do. A workaround, a spreadsheet, a small amount of money already spent: these are signs the problem is real enough to cost effort today.
What to listen for
If nobody can describe a recent time the problem hurt, the problem is probably smaller than it looks. That is a useful answer, and you got it before building anything.