From Signals to Problems: Customer Discovery with Dharmesh Ba
At South Park Commons, we spend time with people before they have a settled idea, and often before there is a company at all. A big part of that journey is learning how to notice problems worth caring about, before rushing to build a solution.
We’re hosting Dharmesh Ba for a practical session on customer discovery: how to understand the people you want to serve, get beyond polite validation, and recognise the difference between a passing complaint and a real, recurring problem.
Together, we’ll cover:
• Choosing a cohort you genuinely want to understand • Running focused conversations and asking behaviour-led questions • Using research, community signals, and market context to deepen your view • Synthesising what you learn into a sharper problem statement • Deciding whether a problem is worth building around
This is for founders, researchers, and builders who are exploring what to work on next, as well as people already building who want a better way to stay close to the people they serve.
About Dharmesh Ba:
Dharmesh Ba is the founder of 1990 Research Labs, a consumer intelligence lab focused on understanding Indian users across language, culture, trust, and digital behaviour. He writes The India Notes, a newsletter followed by 18,000+ people on Indian consumers, culture, and market shifts.
Over the last decade, Dharmesh has worked across user research, ethnography, and consumer-insight projects with teams including Duolingo, HDFC Bank, Meta, CRED, Udaan, and Lokal.
About South Park Commons:
South Park Commons is a community and fund for exceptional builders figuring out what to build next. We bring together founders, researchers, engineers, and technologists who are drawn to frontier problems and want to find work worth spending the next decade on.