PainMap (painmap.io) is an AI market-validation and product-research tool — "stop guessing, ship products the market already wants." Instead of an LLM's opinion of your idea, it runs parallel live research across Reddit, X, G2, Capterra, and Trustpilot at query time, mines real customer pain points (with quotes), combs competitor 1-2★ reviews for unmet needs, extracts willingness-to-pay (WTP) signals from natural language, and packages the result as a product brief (validated features, pricing tiers, landing-page copy) in a few minutes. It's grounded in real conversations — a genuine edge over pure-LLM validators — but what it surfaces is discussed pain, not proven demand, and it's a UI-only tool with no public API. Free tier (2 runs/month, no card) plus one-time credit packs (credits never expire).
Step 1 — Gather context
If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge.
Ask only what you can't infer:
- What do you want from PainMap?
- A) Run a niche/idea through it and interpret the pain points / market gaps
- B) Use the WTP signals and competitor-review mining to shape pricing/positioning
- C) Understand the credit system — free runs vs one-time packs, which pack to buy
- D) Export or automate the briefs (API / integration reality)
- What's the real question — "is this worth building?" or "how do I use this tool?" If it's the
go/no-go decision or comparing validators, that's
/sales-idea-validation— route in Step 2.
Skip-ahead: if the user wants the validate-before-building method, to compare validators across the market, or ongoing brand monitoring, route immediately in Step 2.
Step 2 — Route or answer directly
| If the user's question is about… | Route to |
|---|---|
| The validate-before-building method, or the go/no-go decision itself | /sales-idea-validation {question} |
| Comparing PainMap against other validators/discovery tools (PainOnSocial, BigIdeasDB, Trend Seeker…) | /sales-idea-validation {question} |
| Ongoing brand/keyword monitoring across social platforms (not one-shot discovery) | /sales-social-listening {question} |
| Building the smoke-test / fake-door landing page to test real demand | /sales-funnel {question} |
| Growing a pre-launch waitlist / capturing real demand | /sales-audience-growth {question} |
| Turning the generated landing-page copy into a real content/ad program | /sales-content {question} |
When routing, give the exact command: "This is a {domain} question — run: /sales-idea-validation {original question}"
Otherwise, answer PainMap-specific questions using Step 3.
Step 3 — PainMap platform reference
Read references/platform-guide.md for the full reference — the five-platform parallel-scan pipeline
and what each output contains, the pain-point / WTP / competitor-gap modules, the free-tier and one-time
credit-pack pricing, the "discussed pain ≠ demand" caveat, and the no-public-API automation reality.
Answer using only the relevant section — don't dump the full reference.
Step 4 — Actionable guidance
- Treat a mined pain point as a real signal that a problem is discussed, not proof anyone will pay.
PainMap's edge over pure-LLM validators is that it quotes real people on Reddit/X/G2/Capterra/
Trustpilot — stronger than a fabricated score. But a loud, frequent complaint is stated pain, not
willingness-to-pay; keep the quotes and the language for your positioning, then take the go/no-go from
a real behavior test (smoke test, pre-sale). Route that decision to
/sales-idea-validation. - The competitor 1-2★ review mining is the highest-signal output — read the verbatims, not just the summary. The gaps it extracts from negative reviews are concrete, buyer-worded, and directly usable for differentiation. Tell the user to open the underlying reviews, confirm the gap is recurring (not one angry reviewer), and check whether it's a gap the incumbent chose not to fill vs one worth building.
- Treat WTP "signals" and any pricing tiers in the brief as hypotheses to test, not a price to set. A mention of "I'd pay $X" in a thread is a data point, not a market price — validate with a real pricing test (pre-sale, a pricing page with a checkout) before committing. Frame all pricing/market numbers as AI-extracted estimates to verify.
- Budget the credits before running, and confirm current prices on painmap.io. It's free for ~2 runs/month (no card), then one-time credit packs (best-effort: Starter/Builder/Studio, credits never expire, roughly one credit per full research run — the Builder+ tiers add the MVP-brief / landing-copy generation). There's no subscription. Decide how many niches you'll actually research before buying, and treat the tier names/prices as best-effort — verify on the pricing page.
- There's no public API — don't plan an integration around it. If asked to automate or export, say
plainly there's no documented public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make/MCP; it's a UI tool with
PDF/brief export only. The two workable fallbacks: (1) export the brief manually from the app,
and (2) if they need the raw signal scripted, reconstruct it from source (Reddit API, G2/Capterra/
Trustpilot scraping, an X/keyword API) rather than through PainMap. Always close an automation/export
question by redirecting the effort: the one thing actually worth automating is not the PainMap
brief but the real demand signal — landing-page conversions from a smoke test — so point the user
to build and instrument that page with
/sales-funneland take the go/no-go to/sales-idea-validation.
If you discover a gotcha or tip not in references/learnings.md, append it there with today's date.
Gotchas
Best-effort from research (2026-07) — PainMap's credit packs, tier names, and scanned-source list move; verify at painmap.io.
- Discussed pain is not demand. PainMap scans what people complain about; a frequent, vivid complaint proves a problem exists and is talked about, not that anyone will pay to fix it. Follow it with a real-behavior test — the grounding is better than a pure-LLM score, but the caveat still holds.
- The AI-generated brief (features, pricing tiers, landing copy) is a first draft, not a validated GTM. It's fast starter material; the copy and pricing that survive are the ones that convert. Don't ship the generated tiers as your real price.
- WTP signals are extracted from natural language, so they're noisy. "I'd pay anything for this" in a thread is hyperbole, not a price point — treat every WTP number as a hypothesis to test.
- Coverage is only as good as what's been posted. A niche that's under-discussed on Reddit/X/G2/ Capterra/Trustpilot returns thin results — absence of complaints isn't absence of a market (or of demand).
- No documented public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make/MCP. It's a web tool; you can't script or batch it programmatically — export briefs manually or reconstruct the signal from the source platforms.
- Free tier is limited (best-effort ~2 runs/month) and packs are one-time. Credits never expire, but there's no subscription — model cost as "how many niches will I research," not a recurring fee. Confirm current numbers on painmap.io.
Related skills
/sales-idea-validation— The tool-agnostic validate-before-building method + the full validator/discovery landscape (use this to actually decide build-or-not; discussed pain is not demand)/sales-social-listening— Ongoing brand/keyword monitoring across social platforms (PainMap is one-shot discovery, not continuous monitoring)/sales-painonsocial— PainOnSocial platform help (the Reddit-only pain-point miner PainMap competes with — narrower source set)/sales-funnel— Build the smoke-test / fake-door landing page the real demand test runs on/sales-audience-growth— Grow a pre-launch waitlist and capture real demand/sales-content— Turn the generated landing-page copy into a real content/ad program/sales-do— Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install:npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do -a claude-code
Examples
Example 1: "PainMap found tons of complaints about my niche — is it validated?"
User says: "PainMap surfaced dozens of Reddit/G2 pain points for my idea and generated a product brief. Does that mean the market wants it?"
Skill does: Explains PainMap scans discussed pain grounded in real quotes (a genuine edge over an
LLM score) but that a loud complaint is stated pain, not willingness-to-pay. Tells the user to keep the
verbatim quotes and buyer language for positioning, then route the go/no-go to /sales-idea-validation — a
smoke test or pre-sale where a stranger takes a committing action — rather than trusting the brief.
Result: The founder gets real demand signal before building, using PainMap's language, not its verdict.
Example 2: How do the free runs and credit packs actually work?
User says: "I used my free PainMap runs — how does the credit system work and which pack should I buy?" Skill does: Explains it's free for ~2 runs/month (no card) then one-time credit packs (Starter/ Builder/Studio, best-effort — roughly one credit per full research run, the Builder+ tiers unlock the MVP brief + landing-copy generation), with credits that never expire and no subscription. Advises deciding how many niches will actually be researched before buying and confirming current prices/tier names on painmap.io. Result: The user picks a pack sized to their real research volume instead of overbuying.
Example 3: Can I export or automate PainMap briefs? (developer/automation)
User says: "I want to run 20 niches through PainMap and pull the pain points and WTP signals into a spreadsheet via API."
Skill does: States plainly there's no documented public API, no webhooks, no Zapier/Make/MCP — it's
a UI tool with manual brief/PDF export only, so there's no supported way to batch or export
programmatically. Suggests exporting each brief manually, or if the raw signal must be scripted,
reconstructing it from source (Reddit API, G2/Capterra/Trustpilot scraping, an X/keyword API) rather than
through PainMap — and notes the thing worth automating is a real demand signal (landing-page conversions),
pointing to /sales-funnel.
Result: The user avoids building on a non-existent API and picks a workable path.
Troubleshooting
PainMap surfaced lots of pain points but I'm not sure the market is real
Symptom: A niche returns many complaints and a confident product brief.
Cause: The tool measures discussed pain on Reddit/X/G2/Capterra/Trustpilot — frequency of
complaints, not proven willingness-to-pay.
Solution: Keep the verbatim quotes and competitor-gap findings for positioning, then run a real demand
test (smoke test / pre-sale) via /sales-idea-validation before building. Confirm the gap is recurring by
reading the underlying reviews, not just the summary.
The generated pricing tiers / WTP numbers seem too clean to trust
Symptom: The brief proposes pricing tiers and cites willingness-to-pay figures. Cause: WTP signals are AI-extracted from natural-language threads (hyperbole and offhand "I'd pay X" mentions), and the brief's tiers are AI-generated first drafts. Solution: Treat every WTP figure and proposed price as a hypothesis to test — validate with a real pricing test (pre-sale, a pricing page with checkout) before setting a price.
My niche returned thin or empty results
Symptom: Few pain points surface for an idea you believe has a market. Cause: Coverage depends on what's actually been posted — an under-discussed niche has little to scan, and absence of complaints isn't absence of a market. Solution: Broaden or rephrase the niche/keywords, check adjacent communities, and don't read a quiet result as a "no" — validate demand directly rather than inferring it from thread volume.
Looking for an API or export/automation
Symptom: Want to script PainMap or pull briefs into another system.
Cause: PainMap has no documented public API, webhooks, or iPaaS connectors; it's a web tool with
manual brief/PDF export.
Solution: Export briefs manually, or reconstruct the raw signal from the source platforms (Reddit API,
G2/Capterra/Trustpilot, an X/keyword API) if you need it scripted; automate a real demand signal
(landing-page analytics) instead. See /sales-idea-validation and /sales-funnel.