Idea · carried by 1 source
Latent Demand
Latent demand is Nikita Bier's framework for finding consumer product opportunities: look for situations where people are trying to obtain a particular value but must go through a very distorted, inefficient process to get it. If you can crystallize their motivation and build a product that clears up what they're actually trying to do, you can have intense, explosive adoption.
Where it comes from
Nikita Bier, explaining how he identified the opportunity that became TBH (consume/highlights/nikita-bier-viral-playbook). He looked at the App Store and saw Sarahah — an anonymous messaging app — was #1 in the United States despite being entirely in Arabic (~25:22). This was “the strongest signal you could ever have that people want something.” He now teaches all founders he advises to search for product ideas through this lens.
The best product opportunities are hiding in plain sight — in the workarounds people already use every day. Don't guess what people want; find where they're already fighting to get it.