La Minute Builder #3 — What problem are we really trying to solve for our users?
« Most products fail because they solve the wrong problem. »
In this edition of La Minute Builder, three examples show why user needs matter more than technology.
The hard part is building something that deserves to exist.
Here are 3 concrete examples
Pizza Hut (2026)
An AI-powered delivery optimization system with an AI agent.
Impact: up to -10% revenue and over $100M in claimed damages.
The real need: get your order quickly — not optimize a logistics metric alone.
Amazon (2018)
A recruiting AI abandoned after reproducing the company’s historical hiring biases.
Impact: several years of development scrapped and major reputational risk.
The real need: identify the best talent beyond gender — not reproduce past hiring patterns.
SNCF Connect (2022)
A platform designed to centralize services.
Impact: ratings dropped to 1.1/5 at launch and thousands of negative reviews.
The real need: buy a ticket quickly — not navigate an ever more complex platform.
In all three cases, technology wasn’t the main problem.
The problem was understanding user needs.
Many teams stay focused on: “How do we build this product?”
Instead of: “What problem are we really trying to solve for our users?”
Yet that’s often where a product’s success or failure is decided.
AI lowers the cost of development.
It doesn’t lower the cost of misunderstanding user needs.