The Manual Trail: How to Map Workarounds and Concierge MVPs
Type: media
Stage: Stage 1: Problem Proof
Difficulty: intermediate
Identify high-signal manual workarounds like complex spreadsheets and old hardware as proof of a market gap.
Overview
When people solve a problem with a complicated workaround, they're telling you something: the problem is painful enough to do extra work, but no adequate solution exists. Workarounds are your most reliable evidence of a market gap. This article shows you how to find them, map them, and use them to validate before you build.
Spreadsheets as pre-SaaS
The highest-signal workaround you can find is a spreadsheet.
When your target audience is managing a problem with 'a spreadsheet plus three browser tabs,' you've found a validated problem ripe for automation. The spreadsheet tells you:
• The problem is real enough to invest time in
• No adequate software solution exists (or they'd be using it)
• The user has already designed the logic — you just need to build the interface
Document the spreadsheet in detail. Ask to see it. Count the tabs. Note the formulas. That architecture is your product spec.
The Workflow Walkthrough
Ask your interviewee: 'Walk me through the last time this happened — step by step.'
Don't accept a summary. Press for specifics: What did you open first? Who did you have to ask? Where did you get stuck? What did you do next?
The real pain is almost never where people think it is. Someone might describe their problem as 'reporting takes too long,' but the walkthrough reveals the actual bottleneck is waiting for approval from a manager who's in a different time zone. That's where your solution needs to focus.
The walkthrough also surfaces: hidden stakeholders, approval processes you didn't know existed, and system constraints that limit what users can actually change.
The Concierge MVP
Before building any software, offer to solve the problem manually.
Say: 'I'm working on a solution for this, but I want to understand it better first. Can I do this for you this week — by hand — while I figure out how to automate it?'
If they say yes and pay you for it, you have the strongest possible validation signal: a real user paying real money for the outcome your software will eventually deliver. No survey, no landing page test, no waitlist signup comes close to this.
The Concierge MVP also teaches you more about the problem in one week of doing than three months of interviewing.
Mining the G2 gaps
For any established problem space, G2 (and similar review platforms like Capterra or Trustpilot) contains a detailed map of what existing solutions get wrong.
Search for the leading competitors in your space. Filter reviews by 1–3 stars. Read the 'Dislikes' section of every review. Look for:
• Specific missing features mentioned repeatedly
• Workflow bottlenecks current tools create or ignore
• Use cases the software 'kind of' handles but not well enough
• Complaints from the segment you're targeting
Competitor review gaps are not just feature ideas — they're evidence of unmet demand. If 40 reviews mention the same missing capability, you have a validated gap with a known audience already using (and paying for) an adjacent solution.