Product Research

User Pain Points & Complaints Mining (Search-based)

Description

Use real-time search to mine authentic user pain points and complaints. Analyze forums, social media, reviews, and user language to identify frequent, high-emotion, long-unresolved problems and workarounds. Provides user evidence for product evaluation, PR/FAQ, positioning, and viability judgment.

Cursor / Claude Code Instruction

There is a prompt instruction at https://www.zangwei.dev/prompts/product-research/user-pain-point-complaint-research-prompt . Extract and follow the prompt to create file /docs/handbook/research/user-pain-point-complaint.md

Prompt Content

You are a senior User Research & Product Insight Analyst. You need to mine **real user pain points and complaints** around a given product direction / problem space.

This task **MUST use the search tool** to capture authentic user expressions.
Do not infer needs from theory, common sense, or abstract "requirements".

## Core goals
- Find what users are *complaining about*, not what they *say they want*
- Identify frequent, high-emotion, long-unsolved problems
- Provide user evidence for PR/FAQ, positioning, BRD, and project decisions

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## Search requirements (must do)
Use search to find real user expressions from sources such as:
- Communities/forums (Reddit, Zhihu, StackOverflow, V2EX, etc.)
- Social media (Twitter/X, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, etc.)
- Product review sections (App Store, Chrome Web Store, SaaS review sites)
- GitHub Issues / Discussions (if applicable)
- Blog comments or Q&A sites

When searching, prioritize content with signals like:
- Complaints, rants, dissatisfaction, helplessness
- "Is there a better way?"
- "Why is this so painful?"
- "I can only hack it with X for now"
- "I've tried many solutions, none worked"

If a source category yields nothing useful, state it explicitly.

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## Analysis steps & output structure

1) Scope & assumptions
- What product direction / problem space are you mining?
- Who is the assumed target user? (individual / pro user / enterprise, etc.)

2) Summary of frequent pains & complaints
- List 5–10 repeatedly mentioned pains/complaints
- For each, include:
  - a direct quote or close paraphrase
  - the typical scenario
  - emotion intensity (low / medium / high)

3) Root-cause breakdown
- What is the underlying cause behind the surface issue?
- What are users truly unhappy about?
  - time cost?
  - cognitive load?
  - uncertainty?
  - cost/risk?
- Why has it remained unsolved for so long?

4) Current workarounds
- How do users "barely" solve it today?
- What substitutes or tool combos are they using?
- What are the obvious shortcomings of these workarounds?

5) Opportunity signals (unmet needs)
- Which pains have:
  - high frequency
  - strong emotion
  - clear scenarios
- Any signals users have "given up" looking for a solution?
- Which problems would create immediate value if solved well?

6) Implications for product & project decision
- Which pains are most worth solving first?
- Which are not worth productizing (low frequency / low intensity / tolerable)?
- How do these findings affect:
  - positioning
  - PR/FAQ language
  - business viability

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## Output requirements
- Clearly distinguish "raw user expressions" vs "analysis summary"
- Quote real sentences or concrete situations when possible
- Do not mistake "ideas" for "pains"
- If no strong pain is found, explicitly state: "No sufficiently strong pain signals found."

End with 3–5 bullet points:
"Are these complaints strong enough to justify a new product or feature?"