The Problem Receipt: write the problem the way your customer says it

People rarely pay because a problem is interesting. They pay because it costs them time, money, certainty, status or sleep. The Problem Receipt makes you write that cost down, in the customer’s words, before you build anything to fix it.

It’s one of the 30 tools in Humble’s 30 days, and the free copy below is the same template.

What goes on it

The receipt is one sentence and five short lines:

How to fill it in

1. Start from one real conversation. Think of the last person who described the problem to you. If there hasn’t been one, have one first.
2. Write the sentence in their words. Use the phrase they used. If they said “the paperwork eats my week”, write that, not “administrative overhead”.
3. Separate the symptom from the problem. The symptom is what you noticed. The problem is what it costs them. Keep going until you reach the cost.
4. Name what they do today. A spreadsheet, a favour from a friend, a lawyer, ignoring it. Whatever it is, you have to be better than that, at a price that makes sense next to it.
5. Label your guesses. Anything you haven’t heard from a customer goes on the last line.

The three most common mistakes

Writing it in your language. Founders describe problems in the vocabulary of their solution. Customers describe the Tuesday it went wrong. If your receipt could be a line on your own landing page, rewrite it.

Stopping at the symptom. “Small businesses struggle with marketing” has nobody in it and no cost. Ask “and what happens then?” until you reach something that costs money or time.

Promoting a guess to a fact. A sentence that reads well is tempting to believe. If nobody has told you it, it belongs on the “still to verify” line.

When it’s done

It’s done when you have a plain-language problem and at least one consequence you could observe, like a lost booking, a week of the owner’s time or a bill. Make it specific enough that someone else could go and check it, even if you’re still unsure it’s true.