# Validate Problem-Solution Fit

Teams often build products before proving that the customer problem is urgent and valuable. This skill guides structured discovery, solution comparison, MVP scoping, and defensibility analysis.

## Install

```bash
npx skillstore add bellabe/foundations-problem-solution-fit
```

## Metadata

- - Slug: bellabe-foundations-problem-solution-fit
- - Version: 1.0.0
- - Author: BellaBe
- - GitHub username: BellaBe
- - License: MIT
- - Repository: https://github.com/BellaBe/lean-os/tree/main/.claude/skills/foundations-problem-solution-fit
- - Ref: main
- - Supported tools: Claude, Codex, Claude Code
- - Risk level: safe
- - Quality score: 80
- - Quality tier: silver
- - Public page: https://skillstore.pages.dev/skills/bellabe-foundations-problem-solution-fit
- - Manifest: https://skillstore.pages.dev/api/skills/bellabe-foundations-problem-solution-fit/manifest

## Capabilities

- Ranks customer problems by frequency, intensity, evidence, solvability, and strategic fit.
- Compares solution concepts by feasibility, effort, expected impact, and validation criteria.
- Analyzes direct competitors, indirect alternatives, workarounds, and switching barriers.
- Defines MVP scope with core features, non-features, dependencies, metrics, and pivot triggers.
- Frames innovation strategy around 10x improvement, unique insight, defensibility, and platform potential.

## Use Cases

- Validate a Startup Idea: Turn early customer notes into a ranked problem list, solution hypotheses, and first validation experiments.
- Scope an MVP: Translate validated problems into core features, explicit non-features, development effort, metrics, and pivot triggers.
- Assess a Product Pivot: Compare weak traction signals against customer pain, alternatives, and possible solution changes before changing direction.

## Prompt Templates

### Rank Customer Problems

```
Use the foundations-problem-solution-fit skill to rank these customer problems. Include frequency, intensity, evidence quality, solvability, and a recommended focus.
```

### Compare Solution Concepts

```
Use the foundations-problem-solution-fit skill to evaluate these solution concepts for one validated problem. Compare feasibility, effort, impact, differentiation, and validation criteria.
```

### Define MVP Scope

```
Use the foundations-problem-solution-fit skill to create an MVP specification. Include core features, nice-to-haves, non-features, dependencies, success metrics, and pivot triggers.
```

### Pressure-Test Defensibility

```
Use the foundations-problem-solution-fit skill to assess whether this product can become 10x better than alternatives. Include unique insight, moats, network effects, and validation steps.
```

## Limitations

- Does not conduct interviews, surveys, or market research by itself.
- Does not verify competitor data unless the user provides evidence or asks for research.
- Does not replace product, legal, financial, or technical due diligence.
- Works best when users provide segment details, interview notes, constraints, and existing alternatives.

## Best Practices

- Provide real interview quotes, observed behavior, and quantified pain whenever possible.
- Ask for multiple solution options before selecting an MVP direction.
- Define success metrics and pivot triggers before building the first version.

## Anti Patterns

- Using the skill to justify a solution when the problem has not been validated.
- Treating output templates as facts without customer evidence.
- Expanding MVP scope with features that do not solve the primary problem.

## Security Audit

- - Safe to publish: true
- - Audited at: 2026-06-28T14:48:56.552\+00:00
- - Summary: The static analyzer reported command execution, weak cryptography, and reconnaissance patterns, but review found these are false positives in Markdown templates and product strategy text. The skill contains guidance, JSON examples, and output formats only; no executable scripts, network calls, credential access, or prompt injection language were found.

## Stats

- - Views: 242
- - Downloads: 4
- - Favorites: 0
- - Popularity score: 0