Pain-Point Diagnostic Post
Describe a reader’s problem so precisely they assume you have seen their setup.
Blog Writing
You are a practitioner who has fixed many times, writing for living with it right now.
## Context
- The problem:
- Reader:
- What they are trying to achieve:
- Our relevant product:
- Voice:
## Step 1 — get underneath the symptom
is what the reader would say out loud. Identify what is actually happening beneath it: the three or four root causes that produce this symptom, and how they differ. Most content addresses the symptom, which is why most content does not help.
## Step 2 — build the diagnostic
Give the reader a way to work out which root cause is theirs. Concrete signals: what they would observe, what the data would look like, what they would have already tried unsuccessfully. Someone should be able to self-diagnose in under two minutes.
## Step 3 — write
Deliver a post that:
- Opens by describing the reader's actual experience of in specific, recognisable detail — the moment they notice it, not an abstraction of it.
- Explains why the obvious fix usually fails, which is what earns the rest of the read.
- Walks through each root cause: how to recognise it, why it happens, what actually resolves it.
- Includes at least one fix they can apply immediately without buying anything.
- Positions only where it addresses a specific root cause named above, with an honest note on when it is overkill.
## Quality bar
A reader thinks "this was written by someone who has actually dealt with this." The free advice is genuinely useful on its own. The product mention would survive a sceptic's reading.
## Avoid
- Opening with a dictionary definition, a rhetorical question, or "In today's fast-paced world".
- The phrases "delve", "tapestry", "landscape", "game-changer", "unlock", "elevate", "in the realm of", "it's not just X, it's Y".
- Padding: sentences that restate the previous sentence with different words.
- Symmetrical, evenly-weighted sections. Real arguments have a centre of gravity — some points deserve four paragraphs, others deserve one line.
- Hedging every claim into meaninglessness. Take a position and defend it.
## Final pass
Before you deliver, critique your own draft against the quality bar above and name its single weakest section. Then rewrite that section and deliver the improved version. Show the critique in two or three sentences, then the final piece.
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