Better Questions, Better Projects
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Founders and business owners know their pain points better than anyone. So when it’s time to build something new, they come prepared:
— “We need a mobile app so customers can track their orders.”
— “Can you build us an AI dashboard like the one in that SaaS demo?”
— “Our competitor added a chatbot . We should probably do the same.”
Smart instincts. But even the best instincts need validation. Otherwise, it’s easy to spend months (and a hefty budget) building the wrong thing — while the real problem stays unsolved.
The difference? It starts with better questions from the developer.
The $50K Detour That’s Easy to Miss
What They Asked For:
“We need an AI chatbot like our competitor’s. It’s driving great engagement.”
What Was Actually Happening:
Their three-person team was overwhelmed with repetitive customer questions, working late nights to keep up.
The Real Problem:
80% of support tickets were the same five questions about shipping and product details — information that was already on their website, but hard to find.
The Better Path:
We reorganised their FAQ and added smart search. The support burden dropped dramatically — in two weeks, not four months.
The Takeaway:
The instinct was right — the solution just needed a reset.
The Questions That Change the Conversation
Before jumping into features, platforms, or AI buzzwords, try these instead:
1. What’s actively frustrating your team or customers today?
Don’t think wish-list. Think real-world pain.
2. If this worked perfectly, what would a regular Tuesday look like?
The clearer the success picture, the better the solution.
3. What happens if we do nothing for six months?
This reveals whether it’s an urgent problem — or a distraction.
4. Who actually uses this every day?
The person asking for a feature isn’t always the person living with it.
5. How could we test this idea without building the whole thing?
Sometimes a simple prototype — or even a manual workaround — tells you everything you need to know.
Real Stories, Real Lessons
The Feature Trap
- What They Wanted: Social sharing, wish-lists, user profiles — “everything competitors have.”
- What We Found: 70% of customers abandoned their shopping carts.
- What We Built: Streamlined checkout process.
- Result: 40% more completed purchases in the first month.
The AI Ambition
- What They Wanted: “AI-powered customer insights like the big players.”
- What We Found: Customer data scattered across spreadsheets, no email automation in place.
- What We Built: Clean database and simple automation first.
- Result: 300% better email performance, and a foundation for AI when the time was right.
The Simplicity Trap
- What They Wanted: “Just basic analytics, nothing fancy.”
- What We Found: Customers were dropping off at a key onboarding step — but they couldn’t see where or why.
- What We Built: Detailed behavioural tracking (more sophisticated than expected).
- Result: 60% improvement in customer retention.
The Quick Reality Check
Before you dive into specs or budgets, ask yourself:
- 1. What’s the actual pain right now?
- 2. What would success really look like?
- 3. How bad is it if we wait?
- 4. Who’s living with this solution every day?
- 5. Is there a scrappy way to test the idea first?
Why This Matters
While competitors build complex solutions to surface-level problems, you can focus on solving the right problems — efficiently.
- The chatbot entrepreneur didn’t just get working software — they got their evenings back.
- The e-commerce store didn’t just get fancy features — they doubled their sales.
- The B2B team didn’t just get data — they built a foundation for real growth.
The Bottom Line
Great development doesn’t start with:
“How do we build this?”
It starts with:
“What problem are we really solving?”
Before your next project kickoff, spend 30 minutes on these questions. You might discover the solution is simpler than you thought — or more important than you realised.
And if there’s a question you haven’t asked yet? That might just be where your biggest opportunity is hiding.