prd-saas-dev

Client Opportunity Mapping

Purpose

Determine in under 10 minutes whether owned assets can solve a prospect’s pain points, and at what collaboration depth. Operates as Stage 2 of client-discovery-workflow.md.

When to Use


Core Heuristic

Do not start from “what does the client need.” Start from “what we already have × where it intersects with their pain.” No intersection → drop the client. Do not force-fit by building new things.


Four-Dimension Pre-Check (Run Every Time, Skipping = Pivot Hell)

Distilled from a real case with 4 wrong-direction pivots (see pitfalls.md — Client Discovery 4 Pivots). Before proposing any MVP, pass these four checks:

Dimension 1: Who pays?

The payer is the real customer. The user is often not the payer.

Context Apparent customer Real customer (payer)
Cram school Children Parents
B2B SaaS End users Procurement / boss
Pet products Pet Owner
Children’s toys Kid Parents / grandparents

Check: Does the solution solve the payer’s pain? Solving the user’s need but the payer feels nothing → no purchase.

Dimension 2: Pleasure point vs Pain point

Type When used When not used Example
Pleasure point Happy, will share Nothing happens Result video, cute animation
Pain point Anxiety relief, can sleep Persistent anxiety → finds competitor AI emotional companion, instant relief

Rule: MVP main dish must be a pain killer. Pleasure points can be side dishes (amplify spread) but never the core sell.

Anti-pattern: Selling “child speaking English video” as main MVP. That’s a pleasure point — parents feel good momentarily but the core anxiety about “my child’s English” is untouched.

Dimension 3: Friction check

Customers pay to outsource hassle. A solution that adds hassle back = inverted logic.

Friction level Example Will buy?
Zero Passive LINE push
Low Voluntary click when curious
Mid 10 min weekly cooperation ⚠️ Depends on value
High Daily task to perform ❌ Cancellation

Anti-pattern: “Every-night parent-child English task” — parents send kids to cram school precisely to outsource this. Throwing it back at them = no buy + complaints.

Check: If I were the payer, does this add to my burden?

Dimension 4: External research mandatory

Run external research (Perplexity, client interviews, public community discussions) before guessing pain points.

Anti-pattern: Assuming “teaching quality is the cram school’s pain” based on stereotypes. A franchise cram school often has teaching covered by HQ — the real pain is enrollment/marketing.

SOP: Stage 1 of client-discovery-workflow.md is mandatory. Skipping = the start of consecutive pivots.


Five-Step Procedure

Step 1: Filter pain points

Keep only pains that satisfy all three:

Reject pains that fail any filter. AI tools are not the right intervention.

Step 2: Inventory assets (no memory shortcuts)

Re-scan each time:

ls products/
ls 8-外掛/
ls skills/

For each asset, document:

Step 3: Build the mapping table

Pain Owned Asset Modification Effort
A X low/mid/high

Modification effort drives pricing tier:

Step 4: Choose collaboration depth

Tier Mode Client Cost Our Risk
A Monthly SaaS rental of existing tools lowest lowest
B Co-development with client as case study (revenue share or discount) mid mid
C One-time integration build + monthly subscription highest highest, but template for future replication

A is for testing the waters. C is the starting point for building a replicable template.

Step 5: Select MVP

Selection rules (both must hold):

  1. The decision-maker (paying party) can feel value within 7 days of launch
  2. The operator (end user of the tool) has zero learning curve

If both rules cannot be satisfied: redo Step 3 or recommend dropping.

Do NOT select MVP based on technical novelty.


Worked Example: English Cram School (2026-05)

Step 1: Filtered Pains

  1. Slow speaking pronunciation feedback (teacher cannot do 1-on-1 corrections at scale)
  2. Wide student skill gap (same classroom, different levels)
  3. Teacher lesson-prep overhead (multiple difficulty versions)
  4. Parents cannot see progress
  5. No after-class practice partner

Step 2: Owned Assets

Step 3: Mapping Table

Pain Asset Modification
Slow speaking feedback Voicebox retooled for English shadowing + scoring mid
Parents cannot see progress MOLTOS dashboard low
Teacher prep overhead AIRE customized question banks mid
No after-class practice LineHub 24h practice bot mid
Parent notifications LineHub + BuyGo+1 low
Class recording Webinar-Go low
Tuition collection Paygo low

Step 4: Three Tiers

Step 5: MVP Selection

LINE bot speaking practice + weekly parent report.

Rationale:


Drop Criteria

Decline the client if any holds:


Cross-References