One of the most common things I hear from FemTech founders is some version of this:
“I experienced this problem myself, and I couldn’t find a solution, so I decided to build one.”
That is a powerful starting point. But identifying a problem is just the beginning.
The mistake many founders make is moving too fast. They sketch out a solution and start building before they have sat long enough with the problem, understanding who it affects, how deeply, and what solving it actually requires. The result is a product that makes sense on paper but struggles to gain traction in the real world.
The right next step is validation, before anything else.
Confirm the Problem Exists Beyond You
Your personal experience is a valid starting point, but it is not enough to build on. You need to hear the problem described by the women you are building for, in their own words, unprompted, because they may experience it differently, describe it differently, and need a solution that looks nothing like what you first imagined.
So talk to women. Join the WhatsApp groups and online communities where your target audience already discusses their health. Listen more than you speak. You are looking for one thing: confirmation that others feel this problem too and that it matters enough to them to want it solved.
Understand How They Are Currently Coping
Before you can build a better solution, you need to understand what women are doing right now.
Are they Googling symptoms at midnight? Asking friends and family? Visiting a clinician when things get bad enough? Using another app that partially addresses the problem? Just living with it and assuming it is normal?
The current workaround tells you what women are willing to do, what they trust, what they can access, and what they find frustrating. It also tells you the bar your product needs to clear. You are not just competing with other apps. You are competing with every existing behaviour your user already has.
If women are currently managing just fine with a free Google search, you have a different challenge than if they are actively frustrated and searching for something better.
Define the Problem Precisely
A vague problem produces a vague solution. And a vague solution is not just hard to build but also hard to explain to investors and get users to understand.
Compare these two problem statements:
“Women in Africa don’t have access to good health information.”
versus
“Women in Nigeria with PCOS can’t find clinically accurate guidance on managing their symptoms without seeing a specialist, which most of them can’t afford or access regularly.”
The second one is a problem you can actually build for. It tells you who the user is, what they need, what the barrier is, and why the current system is failing them. Everything about your product, including the features, the messaging, the clinical content, and the pricing, should be answerable from that one sentence.
If you cannot describe your problem that precisely yet, you are not ready to build. You should keep researching.
Research What Already Exists
This step makes many founders uncomfortable because they are afraid of finding out that someone else is already doing what they planned to do.
Do the research anyway.
If something similar exists, that is not automatically bad news. It might mean the problem is validated and the market is real. Your job then is to understand why what you are building is different, better, or more suited to your specific user than what already exists.
If nothing similar exists, ask yourself why. Sometimes the gap is there because nobody has thought of it yet. But sometimes it is there because others tried and couldn’t make it work, or because the market is not viable in the way you are imagining. Both are important things to find out before you invest significant time and money.
Write Down Your Assumptions
Every founder has a set of assumptions baked into their idea.
Assumptions like
- Women in my target market will pay for this.
- Clinicians will trust and recommend it.
- Users will change their current behaviour to use my product.
- The problem I experienced is experienced the same way by others.
Write every assumption down. Then ask yourself: what would need to be true for this assumption to hold? And how can I test it before I build?
Then, and Only Then, Think About the Solution
Once you have confirmed the problem, understood your user, mapped the existing landscape, and tested your key assumptions, you are ready to start thinking seriously about what to build and how.
Not before.
I know this can feel slow. When you have a strong vision for a product, the pull to start building is real. But the founders who move fastest in the long run are the ones who did this groundwork first.
The goal of this entire stage is to move from “I think this is a problem” to “I have evidence this is a problem, and I understand it well enough to solve it.”
That shift from assumption to evidence is what your next step is really about.
Clinical Credibility Toolkit
The Clinical Credibility Toolkit is a free resource designed for FemTech founders building digital tools for women’s health.
It includes the Clinical Credibility Scorecard, a 28-question assessment that helps you identify gaps in your clinical foundation, evidence strategy, safety architecture, and investor readiness, and the Red Flag Detection Checklist, a 25-question assessment that tells you whether your symptom-tracking app can actually detect and act on medical red flags, not just log them.
If you are preparing to pitch, pursuing healthcare partnerships, or simply want to know where your product stands clinically, start here.
Access the toolkit → app.ayomide.me
Thanks for reading. See you soon!
Dr. Ayomide O.
FemTech Credibility Advisor
Find me on LinkedIn or Book a 1:1 Call
