Are You Competing or Creating? What Design Thinking Can Teach Early-Stage Founders

Many founders start with an idea.

A product they want to launch. A service they want to offer. A solution they believe people need. But before you start building, designing, marketing or selling, there's a more important question to ask:

Do you fully understand the problem you're trying to solve?

That was the focus of the first FishTank Incubator masterclass, where founders explored Design Thinking and learned how to redefine their market before rushing into execution. For many entrepreneurs, particularly in the early stages of building a business, there can be pressure to move quickly. Create the website.

Launch the social media channels. Build the product. Find customers.

Design Thinking encourages the opposite approach.

It asks founders to slow down, stay curious and spend time understanding the people, behaviours and systems that shape the problem they're trying to solve.

What Is Design Thinking?

Design Thinking is a problem-solving approach that puts people at the centre of decision-making.

Rather than starting with assumptions, founders are encouraged to explore, observe and ask questions. The goal is to understand what's really happening before deciding what should happen next. The approach has been used by businesses, governments, charities and innovators around the world because it helps people tackle complex challenges that don't have obvious answers.

For entrepreneurs, Design Thinking provides a useful reminder:

Your first idea is rarely the full picture.

The more time you spend understanding the challenge, the more likely you are to create something people genuinely need.

Falling in Love With the Problem

One of the strongest themes from the session was the idea of "falling in love with the problem."

Many founders naturally fall in love with their solution. It's understandable. You've spent time developing an idea and you're excited to bring it to life. However, businesses that create lasting value tend to have a deep understanding of the challenge they're addressing.

When founders become obsessed with understanding a problem, they begin to uncover insights that competitors often miss.

They start asking questions like:

• Why does this problem exist?

• Who experiences it most?

• What solutions already exist?

• Why aren't those solutions working?

• What behaviours are contributing to the problem?

These questions often reveal opportunities that wouldn't have been visible if the founder had jumped straight into building.

Looking Beyond Customers

When people hear the word "market", they often think about customers.

But markets are much bigger than customer groups.

Throughout the session, founders were encouraged to think about their market as a wider ecosystem made up of people, behaviours, technology, culture, economics and social trends.

For example, if you're launching a wellness business, your market isn't simply people who buy wellness products.

Your market might also include:

• Social media platforms shaping trends

• Changes in working patterns

• Economic pressures affecting spending habits

• Cultural attitudes towards health

• Emerging technologies influencing behaviour

  
  

All of these factors affect how people make decisions.

Understanding the wider ecosystem helps founders spot opportunities and risks much earlier.

Are You Competing or Creating?

One of the most thought-provoking discussions from the session centred around the concept of Red Ocean and Blue Ocean thinking.

A Red Ocean is a crowded market where businesses compete for attention within an existing category.

A Blue Ocean is a space where new demand is created by serving an unmet need or overlooked audience.

Businesses like Airbnb and M-Pesa are often used as examples because they didn't simply compete within existing categories. They approached familiar problems from a different perspective and created new opportunities in the process.

However, the session also highlighted an important reality.

You don't need to create an entirely new industry to build a successful business.

Sometimes innovation comes from:

• Serving a specific audience better than anyone else

• Improving an existing experience

• Making something more accessible

• Solving a familiar problem in a new way

  
  

Innovation isn't always about invention.

Often, it's about insight.

Your Biggest Competitor Might Not Be Another Business

One of the discussion prompts that generated the most debate was the statement:

"Your biggest competition isn't another company, it's behaviour."

When founders think about competitors, they often focus on businesses offering similar products or services.

But in reality, behaviour can be a much bigger barrier.

For example, a fitness app may not be competing against another app. It may be competing against a user's habit of procrastination. A networking event may not be competing against another event. It may be competing against people's reluctance to leave their homes after work.

Understanding behaviour helps founders design better solutions because they start addressing the real obstacle rather than the obvious one.

A Practical Exercise for Founders

If you're currently developing a business idea, try answering these questions:

Who is your primary user?

Who else influences their decisions?

What social, cultural or economic factors shape your market?

What assumptions are you making that haven't been tested yet?

If your business disappeared tomorrow, what problem would remain unsolved?

These questions can help uncover valuable insights and challenge assumptions before you invest significant time or money into a solution.

Final Thoughts

The first stage of building a business isn't creating. It's discovering.

Before you worry about branding, websites, social media or sales, spend time understanding the people and problems at the centre of your idea. The strongest businesses aren't always built by people with the most innovative products.

They're often built by founders who understand their audience better than anyone else. Design Thinking provides a framework for developing that understanding and turning insight into opportunity.

Ready to Explore Your Business Idea?

The FishTank Incubator Programme supports early-stage founders to explore ideas, validate opportunities and build sustainable businesses through expert-led workshops, mentorship and a supportive community of entrepreneurs.

Applications for our current cohort is closed, but future opportunities are always on the horizon.

Follow FishTank and keep an eye out for announcements about upcoming cohorts and programmes.