How To Describe Your Product

A problem statement is a description of the problem you are solving. This is another way of referring to the benefit, or the value you are providing to a customer. A problem can be seen as an unmet need or desire.

Entrepreneurs and investors, in evaluating an opportunity, often see the problem statement, in whatever form or name it adopts, as the critical first step. It consists of five or six key elements, which help to frame the idea, especially when pitching or otherwise describing the idea to someone hearing it for the first time.

Problem context
What is the background organisational (or other) environment? E.g. there is a growing need for various border and transit authorities to check passengers for infectious diseases

The pain
What are the actual problems people are facing? E.g. there is a large and growing numbers of passengers and simply not enough time to check a reasonable proportion of them

Alternative solutions
How is the problem currently being addressed? E.g. large numbers of specialists are employed to visually check blood samples under a microscope.

Their shortcomings
Why does the problem still exist? E.g. this process is slow, expensive, dangerous and error-prone

Proposed solution
Description of the key feature and the benefit it will provide E.g. we propose using an automated system that employs artificial intelligence to check far larger numbers of blood samples with greater accuracy and at much lower cost.

How this relates to your business
You will notice that only one of the above points made any reference to the underlying technology of your solution. This is for good reason: not only are more investors able to understand the real-world problem than the technical solution, but if the technology is not a solution to a clear problem, then it is difficult to see who will pay for your technology, how much and why.

Being able to craft the beginnings of your pitch around these key elements will ensure you get off to a good start.