How to Assess Problem Founder Fit

As Dr. Ian Malcom, one of the greatest minds of our time, once said, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”

AI now enables endless possibilities we never had before. However, falling into the trap of being swept away by the excitement of these possibilities is easily done.

This is why, for a recent talk, I decided to formalize a structure that I use to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of solving a specified problem, i.e., assessing Problem Founder Fit. The scores are set based on a balance of data and intuition.

Definition of the problem
💡 The Idea - I want to help ____ by solving ____ for ___ through ___, without ___.
🛠️ What is the ultimate outcome this achieves - In <60 characters, what’s the job to be done?

The scoring parameters (1-5 for each)
🔥 Passion level - How much do you care about this?

⚡️ Change event - Why now?

🎯 Ease to target - How easy is it for you to reach the people who have this problem?

🌍 Market Size - Is the serviceable available market growing?

🔎 Demand Signals - How strongly do the indicators show people want this?

🏆 Unfair advantage - Why you?

💰 Impact on revenue - How closely linked is the solution to the customer's revenue stream?

🏁 Presence of incumbents - Is there a healthy number of competitors in the space from which you can take market share?

Working example here.
💡 Idea
A writing assistant for executives, transforming rough notes into publishable content on professional networks while retaining the user's unique tone.

🛠️ JTBD -
Forge new partnerships, clients, or opportunities through a well-articulated strategic narrative.

🔥 Passion Level, 3.5:
Thrive on empowering individuals to share influential information globally.

⚡️ Change Event, 4:
Advancements in LLMs have simplified the communication of complex ideas.

🎯 Ease to Target, 3.5:
95% of my network are knowledge workers

🌍 Market Size, 2.5:
Despite more knowledge workers, many lack incentive to invest in personal branding due to status quo bias.

🔎 Demand Signals, 2.5:
Ghostwriter services exist but are often tied to PR offerings; few seek standalone branding services.

🏆 Unfair Advantage, 4:
My expertise in personal branding for Fortune 500 executives and software development equips me to build a sought-after solution.

💰 Revenue Impact, 3.5:
Personal branding, a form of inbound marketing, yields a conversion rate sevenfold higher than company-shared content.

🏁 Presence of Incumbents, 3:
Competitors like Writer, Grammarly, Copy, and Jasper operate similarly but scarcely cater to the prosumer market.

Are there any parameters you would add or change?

Can DM the spreadsheet to anyone that wants it.