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

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --domain | required | Domain to explore | | --limit | 10 | Max subreddits to return |

scan

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --subreddits | required | Comma-separated subreddit list | | --domain | | Domain for extra search queries | | --days | 365 | How far back to search | | --minScore | 1 | Min post score filter | | --minComments | 3 | Min comment count filter | | --limit | 30 | Max posts to return | | --pages | 2 | Pages per query (more = deeper, slower) |

deep-dive

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --post | | Single post ID or Reddit URL | | --from-scan | | Path to scan output JSON | | --stdin | | Read scan JSON from stdin | | --top | 10 | How many posts to analyze from scan | | --maxComments | 200 | Max comments to fetch per post |

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