Problem-Centered Wedge
Ignore competitors; find an unsolved painpoint people will pay to fix, then expand.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 92%
Rather than analyzing competitors or over-engineering an ICP, Canva found a gap in the market where people had a real, unsolved painpoint, solved it exceptionally well for a small group, and let expansion emerge from customers themselves. Solving a small number of people's problem really well beats solving many people's problem poorly — and the wedge naturally widens as customers ask for adjacent uses.
Origin
Melanie Perkins on Canva's origin via Fusion Books (Australian school yearbooks).
Core principles
- 01Don't worry about competitors — look for the market gap you can uniquely fill
- 02A solution people will pay for is one that truly solves a real painpoint
- 03Better to solve a small group's problem really well than a large group's poorly
- 04Expansion signals come from customers asking to use your tool for adjacent jobs
- 05A big adjacent market behind the wedge is what turns it into a great company
How to run it
- 1
Find an unsolved painpoint, not a competitor gap
Look for a core problem people currently have that existing tools don't address, instead of positioning against rivals.
Pro tip Canva's wedge was yearbook coordinators with no design experience thrown into designing a yearbook with no good tools.
- 2
Get intimate with every customer
Talk to every customer, give hands-on tutorials, understand all their painpoints, and iterate continuously.
Pro tip Fusion Books gave yearbook coordinators over-the-phone tutorials and collected continuous feedback.
- 3
Solve it so well they pay
Solve the painpoint well enough that people genuinely want to pay because it truly removes real pain — avoid being a solution looking for a problem.
Watch out A problem that only one person has may not be a great company — make sure it maps to a larger market.
- 4
Let customers reveal the expansion
Watch for customers asking to use the product for other jobs; those requests, plus a still-empty broader market, signal where to expand.
Pro tip A school asked to use Fusion Books to design newsletters; Canva saw nothing on the market doing the same simple design for everything else.
In the wild
Canva started with Australian school yearbooks — a niche with painful, poor tools and coordinators with no design skill. Years in, customers began asking to design newsletters and other materials, and Perkins saw the broader design market was still unserved by anything as simple.
→ The narrow wedge became Canva, now serving 240M+ monthly users across dozens of design categories.
Common mistakes
Building a solution looking for a problem
Leading with a clever solution rather than a validated painpoint produces something people won't pay for because it doesn't remove real pain.
Chasing a large market you serve poorly
Trying to solve many people's problem badly beats no one; solving a small group's problem excellently builds the loyal base and paid willingness that a great company needs.
Is it for you?
Best for
Early-stage founders choosing a beachhead wedge and validating demand
Not ideal for
Later-stage companies allocating across an established multi-product portfolio
From the transcript
“we didn't really worry about competitors at all we actually just saw where is there a gap in the market that we can uniquely fill”
“one of the schools said, "I love this product so much. Can I use it to design newsletters?"”
“it's better to solve a small number of people's problem really well than trying to solve a large number of people's problem not very well…”
“solve it in such a way that people actually want to pay for it because they it is truly solving a real painoint”
From the episode
The woman behind Canva shares how she built a $42B company from nothing
Melanie Perkins