whitespace-finder
Systematic unmet-needs discovery engine that maps gaps between market demand and existing solutions with quantified opportunity scores. Use when: find opportunities, unmet needs, market gaps, opportunity discovery, what should we build, where is the whitespace.
Whitespace Finder (DEPTH Model)
Map the gap between what the market demands and what exists. Produces quantified, validated opportunity scores for product and GTM decisions.
When to Use
- New product ideation
- Feature prioritization against market need
- Adjacent market exploration
- Investment thesis validation
- Pre-PRD opportunity validation
What You'll Need
Critical inputs (ask if not provided):
- Market or product category to analyze
- Target customer segment(s)
- Known competitors (or ask me to research)
Nice-to-have:
- Signal Radar output (if previously run)
- JTBD Extractor output (if previously run)
- Customer feedback or support ticket themes
Process
Step 1: Demand Evidence Collection
Audit demand across 6 evidence channels:
| Channel | What to Look For | Evidence Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Community forums (Reddit, HN, Discourse) | Problem-statement posts, workaround discussions | Medium -- shows real pain |
| Review mining (G2, Capterra, TrustRadius) | 1-3 star review complaint patterns, missing feature mentions | High -- verified buyers |
| Search demand | Volume for problem queries vs. solution queries (gap = unmet need) | High -- quantifiable |
| Support tickets | Recurring themes, feature requests, workaround patterns | High -- your own customers |
| Analyst reports | Problem statements, unmet need callouts, market gaps cited | High -- expert validation |
| Adjacent product requests | Features users ask for that cross product boundaries | Medium -- shows expansion opportunities |
For each channel, extract the top 5 unmet needs with supporting evidence.
Step 2: Gap Matrix Construction
Build a 2D matrix:
- X-axis: Customer needs/jobs (from research or JTBD Extractor)
- Y-axis: Existing solutions in market (products, workarounds, manual processes)
Rate each cell:
| Rating | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Completely unaddressed -- no solution exists |
| 1 | Poorly addressed -- solutions exist but are inadequate |
| 2 | Adequately addressed -- good-enough solutions exist |
| 3 | Well addressed -- strong solutions, hard to differentiate |
Whitespace = cells rated 0-1 with strong demand evidence.
Step 3: DEPTH Scoring
Score each whitespace opportunity (1-10):
| Dimension | What It Measures | Scoring Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Demand Evidence | Volume and quality of signals indicating real demand | 1=anecdotal, 5=multiple sources, 10=overwhelming evidence |
| Existing Solutions | How well current solutions address it (inverse) | 1=well solved, 5=partial solutions, 10=nothing exists |
| Pain Intensity | Severity of unmet need | 1=nice-to-have, 5=significant friction, 10=hair-on-fire problem |
| Total Addressable Need | Size of population with this unmet need | 1=tiny niche, 5=meaningful segment, 10=mass market |
| Hurdle Analysis | Barriers to entry (inverse -- high = low barriers) | 1=massive barriers, 5=moderate effort, 10=easy to enter |
Opportunity Score = (D x 0.25) + (E x 0.20) + (P x 0.25) + (T x 0.15) + (H x 0.15)
Classification:
- 7.5+ = Prime Opportunity (high confidence, prioritize)
- 5.0-7.4 = Promising (validate further before committing)
- Below 5.0 = Marginal (park unless strategic fit is strong)
Step 4: Opportunity Clustering
Group related whitespace opportunities into "opportunity zones" that could be addressed by a single product or feature set. Each zone gets:
- Combined DEPTH score (weighted average of constituent opportunities)
- Shared customer segment
- Common technical requirements
- Estimated effort to address
Output
Save to outputs/whitespace-[market]-[YYYY-MM-DD].md
Deliverables:
- Gap Matrix: Heat map of needs vs. solutions with whitespace cells highlighted
- Opportunity Scorecards: One per whitespace opportunity with DEPTH scores and evidence citations
- Opportunity Zones: Clustered opportunities showing which can be addressed together
- Validation Roadmap: Prioritized experiments to validate top opportunities (surveys, prototypes, landing page tests)
Chain Connections
- Next skill: Run
market-analyzerto size the opportunities you discovered - Also feeds:
position-lock(validated opportunities become positioning targets),battle-scanner(whitespace informs differentiation angles) - Enhanced by: Run after
signal-radar(signals point to where whitespace may exist)