How We Went From Zero to “Something” in One Hour

When nothing’s clear, make it messy - fast

We had a new product idea. It felt promising, but totally unshaped. No real user stories. No hypotheses. Just a lot of “we could…” ideas swirling in a Google Doc.

For days, we went in circles. Every conversation ended with more questions. What problem are we really solving? Who feels it badly enough to pay for a fix? Should we talk to early-stage founders or product managers? We kept hesitating, hoping a clear angle would reveal itself if we just thought hard enough.

I wanted to break that loop. Not with a perfect plan, but with motion. What if I just did a quick, rough discovery sprint? One hour. No tools. No slides. Just find the signal. What happened next surprised me.

The 60-Minute Discovery Sprint

Setting a timer and letting chaos in

I gave myself one hour to figure out what this idea might solve, for whom, and why it might matter. No frameworks. Just me, a doc, and a browser tab open to Reddit and X.

I had zero expectations. I wasn’t trying to be scientific. I just wanted to get unstuck by treating discovery like a fast scavenger hunt instead of a research project.

Here’s how I ran it, minute by minute.

Starting From Where People Already Are

I skipped “personas” and looked for real frustration

Instead of inventing hypothetical users, I searched real communities. I opened r/startups, r/Entrepreneur, r/SaaS, and a few niche ones like r/SideProject and r/UserExperience. On X, I looked at tweets mentioning "launch stress", "feature requests", "early validation", and just scrolled through replies. I typed things like “I’m stuck with…”, “what do you use for…”, “any tools for…” into Reddit. I looked for posts where founders or builders vented, shared frustrations, or asked for help.

In under 15 minutes, I had more than 10 screenshots. Not research-quality data. But honest, unfiltered insight into how people were talking about their pain in the wild.

Patterns popped up quickly and gave me phrases I could copy-paste into draft messaging later. Things like: “I hate chasing feedback”, “we launched but nobody uses it”, “it’s so hard to tell if a feature is actually wanted.”

Pattern Spotting > Guessing Pain Points

When you see the same complaint twice, write it down

By the 30-minute mark, I had four repeated themes. Not just vague complaints - real, recurring pain points. And the kicker: people weren’t just complaining. They were already trying to solve the problem in DIY ways.

One founder described building their own internal survey tool because "user interviews took too long." Another asked if anyone just used Notion tables to track feedback because Productboard felt too heavy. People weren’t waiting for perfect tools. They were hacking their way forward.

That changed how I saw our idea. I stopped asking "Do they have this problem?" and started asking, "What are they already doing about it?" That’s a better lens for product fit.

This was my first baseline.

Turning Notes Into a Draft Hypothesis

Why a rough sketch beats a blank canvas

With 20 minutes left, I opened a new doc and forced myself to write a single paragraph. One sentence about the user. One about the problem. One about how we might help. I used actual phrases from the posts I'd read, not marketing speak.

It looked something like this:

“Indie founders often feel stuck after launch. They're unsure if anyone actually wants their new feature, and don’t have time for a full research cycle. What if they could simulate early user reactions in minutes using real online behavior?”

That’s it. No UI. No pitch. Just a sketch I could test in conversation.

We later used this to shape our first Zaqlick prompt for this audience.

Putting It to Use: First Conversations

What happened when we used the paragraph in real discovery

Armed with that draft, I started reaching out. Nothing fancy. A few DMs to people who'd tweeted about validation stress. A few cold intros from our network.

In each call, I just read the paragraph out loud and asked: “Does this feel familiar?” That was it. The goal wasn’t to pitch. Just to see if they nodded, hesitated, or redirected me.

Most said something like: “Yeah, that’s exactly it.” A few corrected the framing, which helped us refine it. But nobody said, “I don’t get it.” That alone was a win.

This one-hour sprint gave us the clarity to book real discovery calls with something testable.

Why This Worked - and What I’d Repeat

You don’t need clarity to get started - you need momentum

The best part? This messy sprint gave me language and direction that a full week of brainstorming hadn’t. It wasn’t "valid" in the academic sense, but it was a live sketch of where attention already was.

I think we often wait too long to "feel ready." But the act of looking outward - and responding to real-world signals - builds momentum. Especially when the internal fog won’t lift.

I'll definitely run this again. One hour. Minimal setup. High payoff.

If You’re Stuck, Try This Crash-Test

One hour. One real-world trail. One draft hypothesis.

This wasn’t genius. It was just focused urgency. Anyone can do it. Especially if you’re drowning in idea soup and need a way to start talking to people with something real.

Next time you feel stuck, skip the whiteboard. Open Reddit. Start listening. Write one paragraph. See what happens.

It might not be perfect. But it might be enough to get moving - and that’s often the hardest part.