Problem Identification Stage
Problem Identification Stage helps the founder or programme team complete a focused intervention on a sharp problem statement, affected customer, current alternative and urgency signal. Within Opportunity Discovery & Venture Thesis, it turns a broad or uncertain area of the venture into a concrete Bertie work product that can be reviewed, improved and reused. The task is intentionally discrete: it should produce a specific artefact, decision, evidence item or risk signal rather than general learning notes.
Complete a focused intervention that advances Problem Identification Stage. The objective is to remove ambiguity around a sharp problem statement, affected customer, current alternative and urgency signal, give the founder a decision-ready output, and make it clear whether the venture should progress, repeat the task with stronger evidence, escalate to expert support, or move into a linked stage.
Bertie or a programme manager assigns Problem Identification Stage when the venture needs a decision-ready output for this group. Typical triggers include group-gate reviews, evidence gaps identified by the co-pilot or founder request.
founder profile; initial idea or opportunity notes; sector interests; early assumptions; available market signals; specific context for a sharp problem statement, affected customer, current alternative and urgency signal.
Frame the precise scope of this intervention to avoid vague customer complaints and isolate a single painful operational friction. Define clear success criteria and boundaries for the problem-scoping exercise before collecting market data.
ObjectiveDefining the task scope prevents the founder from pursuing broad, untreatable market observations. It establishes clear boundaries for the Problem Identification Stage, ensuring all subsequent validation work directly supports a razor-sharp venture hypothesis.
What's expectedThe founder produces a written mandate defining the exact problem domain under investigation and explicit criteria for passing this stage. This document must state what is explicitly out of scope for the current sprint.
Open action arrow_forwardConsultant stress-test · 5 questions- 1.Why have you chosen to bound this specific problem area rather than addressing the wider workflow?
- 2.What concrete failure criteria will tell us that this problem is too trivial to build a venture around?
- 3.How does isolating this specific friction fit into your broader thesis for the sector?
- 4.What prior assumptions about this problem domain are you deliberately setting aside for this intervention?
- 5.Where does this problem definition draw the line between a minor operational inconvenience and an existential business risk?
- A data-room asset titled Problem Identification Stage
- A clear task output, updated venture DNA and recommended next action
- It should update the venture DNA with specific evidence or decisions about a sharp problem statement, affected customer, current alternative and urgency signal, create a visible milestone in the founder journey, and generate one or more recommended next tasks
Bertie co-pilot researches market signals, structures opportunity comparisons, challenges weak theses, and recommends discovery or specialist-sector tasks. For this task, it should focus on a sharp problem statement, affected customer, current alternative and urgency signal, prompt the founder for missing inputs, draft or improve the output, flag weak assumptions, and record the result back into the relevant data-room section.
A mentor or evaluator can review the output at the group gate. Programme managers can require an advisor checkpoint before Bertie moves the venture forward.