# Discovery/the problem

## The problem space

As I mentioned earlier, product managers work to add value to users and the business. The problem space is where your user needs are. This could be the challenges/pain-points they face, their goals or their desires.

> ***'Customers don’t care about your solution. They care about their problems’ - Dave McClure***

It is a product manager's role to ensure the product allows users to overcome their problem or achieve a goal. However, people don’t often communicate what their problem is in a clear way. We often think of solutions because as users we don’t know any better (e.g. asking for a feature because they think it will help, rather than being clear why they want that feature. Product Managers must read between lines to define the problem space.

## Product / Market fit 

Getting the balance between adding value to users and adding value to the business is known as product / market fit.

![](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/eYvZXKbWJYJHAR-kdw2faZh8NCQpE80c_44eCrQC2N5L4W_pNtIXMDC_V8ahd1zVh44YKSTB4_-Fch5gmhxy-1UMNP26OFSohZpu_mJVEGz4FQbMZNWEF-VAMGKBACOnBRS7JMVx)

*An image of the product market triangle. From Dan Olsen’s book. Resources section.*

* Target Customer: Who are they? 
* Underserved Needs: What are their needs? 
* Value Proposition: How the customer benefits and how our product is better. 
* Feature Set: The functionality that supports those benefits. 
* User Experience (UX): What the customer interacts with to get the benefits