Business analysis glossary
Pain Point
What it is
A pain point is a specific problem that causes delay, cost, errors or frustration in a process or product. Good pain points are observable and, where possible, quantified. Examples are repeated data entry, long waits for approval, unclear instructions or a report that never matches the ledger.
Why it matters
Pain points focus improvement effort. A solution that addresses the biggest pain point delivers value quickly; one that ignores them rarely pleases anyone. Listing them by impact also helps the sponsor decide what to fix first, using time lost or error rates instead of opinion.
Example
Customer support at Lumen Retail reports a pain point: staff must look in three systems to find a refund status, adding around four minutes to each call according to their own sample of ten calls. Because it came with a rough measurement, the sponsor could compare the cost of the problem with the cost of fixing it.