Score frequency and severity
Pain intensity is calculated as frequency multiplied by severity, weighted by how costly the current workaround already is — a problem people pay to avoid is a stronger signal than one they merely dislike.
Free MVP research tool
Pain Intensity Survey Designer
Turn a target problem into a short survey that measures how often your audience hits it and how severe it feels, then get a scored read on whether the pain is worth building for.
- Calculated instantly from your inputs
- No signup or data submission
- A focused next step for MVP planning
Your entries remain in this browser session and are not sent to MVPHub.
Your inputs
Describe the problem you want to measure
Enter the audience, the problem statement, and your best estimate of frequency and severity from early conversations. The tool builds the survey and scores the signal.
Your calculated result
Your result
0/100
Planning score
Recommended next actions
How it works
Generate the right questions
The survey questions are built from your inputs: a frequency-anchored question, a severity-anchored question, and a workaround-cost question, each using behavioural rather than hypothetical wording.
Read the intensity band
The 0–100 score sorts the problem into a validated-pain, moderate-pain, or weak-pain band so you know whether to proceed to solution testing or keep digging for a sharper problem.
Frequently asked questions
Why measure frequency and severity separately?
A problem that happens daily but is mildly annoying is a different opportunity than one that happens rarely but is severe. Separating them stops you from conflating "common" with "painful."
Should I ask these questions directly in a survey?
Rephrase them as recent behaviour questions ("When did you last...") rather than hypothetical ratings — self-reported severity is more reliable when anchored to a specific recent event.
What is a good pain intensity score?
Above 65 usually means the problem is frequent, severe, and already costing people time or money — worth prioritizing. Below 40 suggests you should keep exploring before committing engineering time.
Does this replace real interviews?
No. It turns your early qualitative impressions into a structured survey and a directional score — you still need to run the survey with real respondents to validate the estimate.
How many responses do I need?
For a directional read, 20–30 target-audience responses is a reasonable minimum; fewer than that and outliers can swing the frequency and severity averages significantly.
How we compare
| Capability | MVPHub | Typeform | Google Forms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequency × severity pain scoring | ✓ | × | × |
| Auto-generated behaviour-anchored questions | ✓ | × | × |
| Survey distribution and response collection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom branded survey pages | × | ✓ | — |
MVPHub designs the pain-measurement questions and scores the intensity from your inputs. Typeform and Google Forms are general survey builders you would use to actually field the generated questions.