We want to expand our operational footprint by offering a new service line, but we are guessing at what local businesses actually struggle with. How do we use web scrapers and AI to find real operational pain points in our market before we launch?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Stop guessing what your target market wants and start looking at what they are publicly complaining about. You can use a simple web scraper and AI to gather this data with minimal effort.

Write a short scraper using a tool like Playwright to extract public data from local job boards, forum posts, and reviews of your competitors. Focus on gathering job descriptions for roles your target clients are hiring for, as well as negative reviews of existing providers.

Once you have this raw text, feed it into an AI model. Instruct the AI to analyze the data and identify recurring themes of operational frustration, system inefficiencies, and administrative bottlenecks.

For example, you might discover that local businesses are constantly hiring for administrative roles to handle messy scheduling, or that they are leaving poor reviews because competitors are slow to communicate.

This analysis gives you raw, unfiltered market data. You can use these insights to refine your V/TO and design a service offering that directly addresses these documented pain points.

Instead of wasting months launching a service based on assumptions, you can enter the market with a targeted solution that solves real, proven operational headaches.