Pain Point Finder

Pain Point Finder

Discover validated pain points on Reddit. Searches for frustrations, complaints, and unmet needs, then analyzes comment threads for agreement signals and failed solutions. Powered by PullPush API — no API keys needed.

Workflow

Follow these 4 phases in order. Each phase builds on the previous.

Phase 1: Discover Subreddits

Find the right subreddits for the user's domain.

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs discover --domain "<user's domain>" --limit 8

Example:

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs discover --domain "project management" --limit 8

Take the top 3-5 subreddits from the output for phase 2.

Phase 2: Scan for Pain Points

Broad search across discovered subreddits.

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs scan \
  --subreddits "<sub1>,<sub2>,<sub3>" \
  --domain "<domain>" \
  --days 90 \
  --limit 20

Example:

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs scan \
  --subreddits "projectmanagement,SaaS,smallbusiness" \
  --domain "project management" \
  --days 90 \
  --limit 20

Review the scored posts. Posts with high painScore and high num_comments are the best candidates for deep analysis.

Phase 3: Deep-Dive Analysis

Analyze comment threads of top posts for agreement and solution signals.

Single post:

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs deep-dive --post <post_id>

Top N from scan output:

node {baseDir}/scripts/pain-points.mjs deep-dive --from-scan <scan_output.json> --top 5

Look at the validationStrength field:

• strong: widespread, validated pain (agreementRatio > 0.20, 10+ agreements)
• moderate: notable pain with some validation
• weak: some signal but limited agreement
• anecdotal: one person's complaint, needs more evidence

Phase 4: Synthesis (you do this)

For each validated pain point, present a structured proposal:

1. Problem: One-sentence description of the pain
2. Evidence: Top quotes + agreement count + subreddit
3. Who feels this: Type of person/business affected
4. Current solutions & gaps: What people have tried (from solutionAttempts) and why it fails
5. Competitive landscape: Tools mentioned (from mentionedTools)
6. Opportunity: What's missing in current solutions
7. Idea sketch: Brief product/service concept
8. Validation: strong/moderate/weak + data backing it

Options Reference

discover

scan

deep-dive

Rate Limits

The script self-limits to 1 request/sec, 30/min, 300/run. If PullPush is slow or returns errors, it retries with exponential backoff. Progress is logged to stderr.

Tips

• Start broad with --days 90 then narrow to --days 30 for recent trends
• High num_comments + high score = validated pain (many people agree)
• High painScore + low num_comments = niche pain (worth investigating)
• The mentionedTools in deep-dive output maps the competitive landscape
• Posts with validationStrength: "strong" are the best startup candidates