“What do you want?” is not enough — digging for real need

Customer discovery—hypothesize and validate what users truly struggle with—is an ideal process.

In practice, first interviews often yield concrete feature asks. Speccing those verbatim can produce something unused. Requests and problems are not the same.

We dig one step before the request: why is it needed, how do you cope today, when is stress highest? Careful questions often reveal a more essential issue than the first ask.

Another method is watching behavior, not only words—walk the workflow, inspect spreadsheets, follow paper forms. Real problems hide in what feels “normal.”

Good products solve problems users hadn’t fully named. That takes listening and observation as much as engineering. sorena’s partnership starts there.