Why Most Product Teams Get Customer Needs Wrong Even When Listening Closely

Every year, countless teams spend months developing apps and gadgets that nobody seems to want. Despite surveys, brainstorms, and big promises, most new products barely register as a blip in people’s lives. One of the biggest, most repeated mistakes is jumping straight into building solutions—before really understanding the problem they’re supposed to solve. It’s a subtle error: teams run interviews, jot down feedback, and almost instantly begin mapping responses to product ideas. Even experienced leaders, cheered on by their passion, start talking about features and technologies before clearly articulating what’s truly bothering the customer in the first place.

The difference between problem space and solution space can feel minor until you see the wreckage of missed opportunities. Take the story of the “space pen.” When asked how astronauts should write in zero gravity, one group spent a fortune inventing a new kind of pen, while another simply handed out pencils. The mistake? Fixating on “writing with a pen” (solution space) instead of framing the challenge as “recording notes in zero gravity” (problem space). The latter opens up creativity, invites cheaper and sometimes better answers, and ensures the team is solving for what the customer really needs.

You see this play out every day—like the friend who excitedly wants to launch a new weather app, convinced everyone wants more colorful radar maps. But dig a little and users just want a five-second summary and reminders for their own neighborhood. Great teams resist the urge to pitch solutions at the start. Instead, they get comfortable with messy lists of annoyances, ambiguities, and emotional pain points. They distinguish the raw “what” from the “how.”

Behavioral science shows that clear problem definition prevents cognitive biases like solution fixation and design anchoring. By deliberately separating problem statements from ideas about fixes, teams open themselves to a wider array of creative, cost-effective, and—most importantly—relevant solutions that truly resonate.

Start this approach by listing out, without filters or jumping ahead to ideas, the core problems or frustrations your customers experience—be ruthlessly specific and keep solutions out of your notes. As you listen, whenever you hear a need like 'make it easier' or 'wish it was faster,' push yourself to rephrase those wishes into clear, actionable needs that you could measure or observe. Next, give your notes a quick review, highlight anything that sounds like 'how' instead of 'what,' and park those ideas for later. By holding back from proposing fixes, you’ll actually unlock bigger and better opportunities for innovation. Give it a try in your next meeting or project kick-off.