[turnsout]

It depends on your perspective, but Facebook, Apple and Amazon all solved a very specific problem. Facebook helped you connect to young people at your school (and eventually beyond). Apple made it accessible to get into home computers in the 70s without soldering your own breadboard or spending a ton. Amazon let you buy books without leaving the house, at a deep discount. Those are all solutions, but you can find the problems by inverting them.

[zain]

I think this is a point in favor of the parent, actually. As you said, you described solutions, and the "problems" found by inverting them are not really things that people would say. To some degree, the founders thought "this product would be awesome if it existed" not "I'm solving a painkiller-level problem here"

For example:

- Facebook: "it is hard to connect to young people at my school" (what do you mean? I'll just go to the campus bar)

- Apple: "I want to get into home computers but I don't know how to solder" (ok, let's start a soldering school?)

- Amazon: "I don't want to leave the house to buy books" (???)

[turnsout]

Product "problems" are almost never things that real people would say out loud. But yeah, going down the list:

- Facebook: Connecting to others is a real human need at almost every age. "I feel like being social but I just want to lay on the couch" is an actual "problem" for products to solve.

- Apple: "I want to get into home computers but I just want to pay someone to give me a finished board" is totally a real problem in 1976.

- Amazon: "I'm feeling lazy but I want this book" is also 100% a real problem.

[omeze]

For Amazon, it was actually about vastly expanded inventory. It was often hard to find books if you didn't live near a large retail book chain. I remember having trouble in high school finding some english class books driving around the suburbs.

[disgruntledphd2]

Yeah I have been a customer of Amazon for over twenty years because of this. I used to spend time looking through microfilm catalogues of my local bookshop before Amazon and it's super nice to not have to do that anymore.