The Distortive Process

Nikita Bier describes how to find product opportunities: look for "latent demand where people are trying to obtain a particular value and going through a very distortive process to obtain that value."

This is your child's tantrum in the grocery store, perfectly summarized.

They want something - attention, autonomy, a specific snack, to feel in control, to not be rushed. That's the latent demand. But they're trying to get it through the most distortive process imaginable: screaming on the floor of aisle seven.

Your job isn't to shut down the tantrum. It's to figure out what they're actually trying to obtain and help them get it through a better method. "I hear you want to pick something. You can choose between these two cereals." Boom - same value, better process.

The behavior is the symptom. The unmet need is the root cause. If you can crystallize what their motivation actually is, you can redirect the chaos into something manageable.

They're not being difficult. They're being inefficient at getting what they need.