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As of 2025, Highline Beta argues that real problems worth solving require three components: a clearly defined user, a functional need, and a deeper emotional or social need that creates urgency.
Most venture teams stop at identifying surface-level functional needs, but real traction comes from understanding the deeper emotional and social drivers behind user behavior. Highline Beta's User + Need + Deeper Need framework helps teams avoid vague problem statements and build solutions that tap into genuine human motivation. For example, shift workers don't just want flexible personal care routines—they want to feel in control of their wellbeing in lives that often feel chaotic.
The framework requires a clearly defined user (specific enough to target but not overly narrow), a functional need (what they're trying to do or solve), and a deeper need (the emotional or social tension underneath). This structure helps teams qualify opportunities, sharpen value propositions, and avoid shallow discovery work that leads to weak venture foundations.
While functional needs describe what users want to accomplish, deeper needs reveal why it matters emotionally or socially. Parents managing kids' food allergies functionally want safe products, but their deeper need is peace of mind and feeling like responsible, capable parents. This deeper layer creates the urgency and meaning that drives real user adoption.
B2B contexts often involve complex decision-making with multiple stakeholders and high-value transactions, making the deeper need component even more critical. Business buyers may request specific features, but their underlying motivations often center on strategic outcomes like competitive advantage, compliance, or risk mitigation. Understanding these deeper drivers enables more effective positioning and messaging across organizational levels.
Teams should ask three essential questions: Who is this actually for? What are they trying to do? Why does it matter to them at a deeper level? If you can't answer all three clearly, the problem might not be worth solving and the venture might not be worth building, potentially saving months of misdirected effort.
Not all problems are worth solving.
At Highline Beta, we don’t chase small frustrations or feature requests.
We look for problems with weight—the kind that unlock traction and create real value.
For us, a real problem combines three things:
✅ A clearly defined user
✅ A functional need (something they’re trying to do)
✅ A deeper need (an emotional or social driver that gives it urgency)
Don’t stop at surface-level tasks. Dig until you understand what’s really at stake.
User + Need + Deeper Need
This structure helps qualify opportunities, sharpen value propositions, and avoid shallow discovery work.
User: Who exactly is this for? Be specific - “Women in America” is not specific enough to target a meaningful group of prospective users. “Single mothers working full-time jobs in America” provides enough specificity to target a cohesive group, without narrowing the user pool too far.
Need: What are they trying to do or solve? By calling out a target behavior, it helps you probe around that behavior and anchor the stories you want users to tell.
Deeper Need: Why does it matter? What emotional or social tension is underneath? Thinking about the psychological underpinnings of the functional need enables you to go beyond the tactical surface and start to really understand the mindset of the user.
Most teams stop at the functional layer. But real traction comes from the deeper one. That’s where you create urgency, meaning and differentiation. Getting at the deeper need behind a user’s problem is essential for building truly impactful products and services. By uncovering the underlying motivations and emotions that drive user behavior, you can build more meaningful solutions, drive breakthrough innovation and foster long-term loyalty and satisfaction.
# 1
User: Shift workers with unpredictable hours
Need: Want flexible personal care routines
Deeper Need: Want to feel in control of their wellbeing in a life that often feels out of control
# 2
User: Parents managing kids’ food allergies
Need: Want to find safe, trustworthy products
Deeper Need: Want peace of mind and to feel like responsible, capable parents
# 3
User: Gen Z professionals starting their careers
Need: Want to manage their finances better
Deeper Need: Want to feel independent and confident, without being judged for what they don’t know
# 4
User: Individuals in long-term relationships who have trouble discussing finances
Need: Help determining whether they are on the same page financially
Deeper Need: Clarity and transparency around what a financial union looks like to create a sense of trust and security
# 5
User: Urban Planners in the US
Need: Better access to data so they can make informed decisions
Deeper Need: To unlock the real value of data to facilitate collaboration, confident decision making and innovation in a way that fosters trust and minimizes risk
# 6
User: Employees at mid-sized organizations with expanding AI usage
Need: A way to quickly learn and implement new technologies
Deeper Need: To ensure they stay current and relevant and instill a sense of efficiency and competence in the every-changing technology landscape
In every case, the deeper need gives the functional need context and urgency.
We believe problem clarity is the most important input in early-stage venture building. It’s the jumping off point for ideating solutions for new ventures. If the problem is wrong, not validated, or not sufficiently painful to inspire users to try to solve it, the whole foundation of the venture is shaky at best.
This framework helps you:
The user/need/deeper need framework is highly relevant—and arguably even more essential—in B2B contexts, as it helps companies effectively understand, articulate and solve problems that matter most to business customers and stakeholders. The functional needs might be a little more functional or niche than B2C contexts, but they’re arguably more painful and underserved.
If you can’t answer all three, the problem might not be worth solving.
And the venture might not be worth building.
We use this framework every day, and it saves teams months of wandering.
