Find the pain: How to spot startup ideas hiding in everyday life

Learning goal

Great startup ideas don’t come from sitting in front of a whiteboard.
They come from real life, from watching, listening, and understanding what frustrates people every day.

If you want to build something that matters, you need to step into other people’s shoes.
Empathy mapping helps you stop guessing and start seeing.

Why it matters

1. Startup ideas are all around you
   Filipino life is full of friction: long queues, broken systems, outdated tools, bad service.
   Most people complain and move on. Founders take note.
   Startup gold is buried in these small frustrations people have accepted as “normal.”

2. What is empathy mapping?
   Empathy mapping is a simple tool that helps you deeply understand your target user.
   It asks four key questions:

• What do they think and feel?

• What do they see?

• What do they say and do?

• What do they hear?
  The goal is to spot hidden frustrations, goals, and needs, even the ones the user might not say out loud.

3. How to use it in the real world
   You don’t need fancy research. Just start with real people and simple observations:

• Watch how they interact with a service (e.g. paying bills, commuting, online shopping)

• Ask open questions like: “What’s the most annoying part of this for you?”

• Take notes and map their responses onto the empathy map

4. Look for patterns, not noise
   After 3 to 5 conversations, you’ll start to see patterns.
   Maybe everyone struggles with slow response times. Maybe they’re always confused by instructions.
   That’s your cue.
   You’re not hunting for random complaints, you’re finding repeat pain.

5. From pain point to opportunity
   Once you’ve spotted a clear problem, ask:

• Is it painful enough that people want a solution?

• Are they already trying to solve it in some way?
  If yes, that’s a potential startup idea.
  The more specific the problem, the stronger your edge.

Quick checklist

• Talked to at least 3 people, not just assumed

• Used the empathy map to structure observations

• Identified a recurring frustration or broken process

• Can describe the pain point clearly in one sentence

• Saw signs that people want it solved

What to do next / StellarPH tip

Take one pain point you found and write down what people are doing to solve it, no matter how messy or slow.
If they’re doing something, that’s proof they care.