A free tool from CoachingUP

One Sentence, Five Questions

Find out if your idea solves a real problem before you spend a dollar.

Who’s told you your idea is great? Your spouse? Your buddy at the gym, who’d “totally buy that”? Bless them. Compliments are free, and they aren’t data. So put the idea down for a minute and pick up the problem. Write it here, the way your customer would say it. An AI coach built on my method will push on it, and you’ll leave with five questions to go test it. It takes about five minutes, and you don’t need to give me your email.

Write your guess

One customer, one problem, one feeling, in their voice, not yours. Then mark each blank. “Know” means you’ve seen it in other people, not just in yourself.

See it filled in:
Who they are: know or guess?

Who they are. Three traits, so you could pick them out of a crowd.

What they want: know or guess?

What they’re trying to get done. Leave your idea out of it.

The surface problem: know or guess?

What gets in the way. That’s the surface problem.

The root problem: know or guess?

Why it gets in the way. That’s the root problem.

The feeling: know or guess?

Name the feeling. People pay to fix feelings.

Read it out loud

Orange underline: a guess. Green underline: you know it.

Want a reaction right now?

An AI coach built on my book and my coaching method will read your sentence, find the blank most worth a second look, and ask you one hard question. It’s AI, not me.

Your sentence goes to Claude, Anthropic’s AI, to get the reaction, and this site doesn’t save it. For adults 18 and over. Privacy Policy

Go ask five people

Find five people who fit your sentence. Not your mom. Not your best friend. They love you, and that’s the problem. Don’t pitch, and don’t mention your idea. You’re there to hear their story.

On your way out

“What question didn’t I ask that I should have? Who else should I talk to?”

Never ask

“Would you buy this?” Hypothetical question, hypothetical answer. Ask about the last time, not the future.

Get the two-sided worksheet (PDF)

The worksheet has a scorecard for your five conversations. Type in it or print it.

Want a human to read it?

The AI is fast. I’m not. But I read every sentence myself, and within two business days I’ll send back the one question I’d ask if we were sitting across a table. Fair warning: it’ll be a question, not an answer. That’s the job.

It goes to me and nobody else. You get one reply from me. No mailing list. Privacy Policy

What is a customer-problem statement?

A customer-problem statement is your best guess at your customer’s problem, written in their voice: who they are, what they want, what stops them, why, and how it feels. It’s a theory, not a fact. Its job is to tell you who to go find and what to ask, so you can test the guess with real people before you spend money on a solution.

Why start there? Because your idea is a solution, and solutions are cheap. The problem is the part worth falling in love with. Once people are talking, the questions you ask decide what you learn. And even with AI building your prototypes, real customers are still the hard part. The whole method is in my book, Enquire to Inspire.

Common questions

What are good customer validation questions?

Good ones ask about the past, not the future. “Tell me about the last time…” gets you a story. “Would you buy this?” gets you a compliment. The five on this page work because each one tests part of your sentence, and none of them mentions your idea.

How many people should I talk to?

Start with five. You’re not running a survey. You’re listening for whether the problem shows up on its own, and whether anyone has tried to fix it. If it doesn’t and they haven’t, you’ve learned something for the price of a few cups of coffee.

Is the AI coach really Bill?

No. It’s Claude, an AI from Anthropic, working from my book and my coaching method. It can sharpen your guess, but it can’t tell you if your customer cares. AI for prep, people for proof. If you want me, use the form on this page and I’ll write back myself.

What happens to what I type?

It stays in your browser until you press a button. Ask the AI coach and your sentence goes to Anthropic to get the reaction; this site doesn’t save it. Send it to me and I keep it with your name and email. The details are in the privacy policy.

Does this work for a team?

It does. Have each person fill in the sentence alone, no peeking, then put the sentences side by side. The gap between them is your first finding. Before You Build is the facilitated version.

What does this cost?

Nothing. The tool, the AI coach, the worksheet and my one question are all free. If you want to keep going, a coaching session starts at $69.99.