Most products fail. Not because of bad technology, poor execution, or insufficient funding. They fail because they never become essential to users' lives. They remain optional when they needed to become necessary.
The painkiller vs. vitamin framework helps explain why.
Painkillers vs. Vitamins
The framework is simple:
Painkillers solve obvious, acute problems. Users know they need them and actively seek them out. Think Uber when you're stranded without a ride, or Slack when email threads become unmanageable.
Vitamins provide nice-to-have benefits. They're good for you, but the need isn't urgent. Users might want them, but they don't desperately need them. Think fitness apps, productivity tools, or meditation platforms.
The conventional wisdom: build painkillers, not vitamins. Painkillers have clearer value propositions, easier adoption, and higher willingness to pay.
But here's where it gets interesting: the most successful products don't neatly fit either category.
The Instagram Case Study
When Instagram launched in 2010, photo sharing wasn't a painkiller. People weren't in acute pain from the inability to share photos; Facebook, Twitter, and countless other platforms already enabled this.
Instagram was arguably a vitamin: a nice enhancement to social sharing with pretty filters and a focused experience. Pleasant, but not necessary.
The Transformation
But watch what happened:
Phase 1: Vitamin (Stimulating latent desire)
Instagram tapped into subtle, previously unrecognized needs:
- The desire to present a curated version of your life
- The need for quick, positive social validation
- The appeal of beautiful aesthetics in everyday moments
- The comfort of asynchronous social connection
Users didn't know they "needed" these things until Instagram made them accessible and desirable.
Phase 2: Habit Formation (The critical transition)
Through repeated use, Instagram became woven into daily routines:
- Capturing moments became sharing moments
- Boredom became an Instagram trigger
- Social validation became expected, then needed
- FOMO (fear of missing out) developed around others' posts
Phase 3: Painkiller (Essential, not optional)
Eventually, Instagram crossed a threshold. For many users, not using Instagram created discomfort:
- Social disconnection
- Missing important updates from friends
- Feeling out of the loop on trends and culture
- Loss of daily validation rituals
Key Insight: "A habit forms when abstaining from an action produces discomfort."
Instagram transformed from a vitamin (nice to have) into a painkiller (necessary to have) by creating a habit so strong that its absence became painful.
Why Pure Painkillers Often Fail
If painkillers are so valuable, why do they sometimes fail?
The Commoditization Trap
When you solve an obvious pain point, competitors notice. They build similar solutions. The market becomes crowded. Your painkiller becomes a commodity, and users choose based on price or minor features.
Example: Food delivery apps solve a clear pain (hunger + no time to cook), but Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Postmates are largely interchangeable. Users switch based on promotions, not loyalty.
The Solution Problem
Sometimes the pain is real, but users have already found workarounds. Your product might be better, but "better" doesn't overcome the switching cost and learned behaviors.
Example: Many project management tools solve real problems, but teams stick with email or spreadsheets because they've developed systems that "work well enough."
Why Pure Vitamins Often Fail
Vitamins face a different challenge: they never become urgent.
The Someday Problem
Users think "I should use this" but never quite do. The meditation app stays on their phone, unopened. The language learning subscription renews, unused. Good intentions don't translate to behavior change.
The Invisible Value Problem
Vitamin benefits are often delayed and hard to attribute. Did that productivity app actually make you more productive, or would you have finished that project anyway? The uncertainty makes continued investment questionable.
The Winning Formula: Painkiller + Vitamin Hybrid
The most successful products blend both categories, following a strategic arc:
1. Start with Latent Pain or Desire
Find a need users don't fully recognize yet. Not manufactured desire, but genuine latent needs that existing solutions don't address.
Questions to ask:
- What are users currently tolerating that could be better?
- What desires exist but aren't being served?
- Where are people using inadequate workarounds?
2. Reduce Friction Radically
Make the first experience so smooth that trying your product requires minimal commitment. The barrier between "I might want this" and "I'm using this" should be paper-thin.
Instagram example: Sign up with phone number, pick username, start sharing. No lengthy onboarding, no complex setup, no learning curve for basic use.
3. Create Immediate Value
Don't make users wait for benefits. Deliver something valuable in the first session, ideally the first minute.
Slack example: The first message sent through Slack feels noticeably better than email. Fast, clean, organized. Immediate validation of the premise.
4. Build the Hook
Design experiences that users want to repeat. Then make repetition easy and rewarding.
Key mechanisms:
- Variable rewards (you never know what you'll find)
- Social reinforcement (likes, comments, shares)
- Progress indicators (streaks, levels, achievements)
- Personal investment (content created, connections made)
5. Create the Absence Pain
This is the critical transformation. Through repeated use and integration into life, your product becomes so embedded that its absence creates discomfort.
Signs you've succeeded:
- Users check your product during idle moments
- Not using it creates anxiety or FOMO
- Users describe it as "essential" not "useful"
- Trying to quit creates withdrawal symptoms
Real-World Applications
Spotify
Initial position: Vitamin (music streaming was nice, but people had iTunes, YouTube, radio)
The transformation:
- Discovered latent desire for music without ownership burden
- Created playlists that became part of daily routines
- Wrapped personal identity into music taste
- Made music discovery so good that other options felt limited
Current state: Painkiller (many users feel genuine discomfort without access to their music library and playlists)
Notion
Initial position: Vitamin (people already had note-taking apps, project management tools, wikis)
The transformation:
- Addressed latent frustration with tool sprawl
- Made building custom workflows genuinely enjoyable
- Created templates that became essential to workflows
- Built community that reinforced value and created FOMO
Current state: Painkiller for many users (switching away means losing customized systems and workflows)
The Strategic Question
When evaluating your product or idea, don't ask: "Is this a painkiller or vitamin?"
Instead ask:
1. What latent pain or desire does this address?
2. How can I make the first experience frictionless and valuable?
3. What habit am I trying to form?
4. How will absence of my product create discomfort?
5. What's the transformation journey from "nice to have" to "can't live without"?
The Ethical Consideration
Creating "absence pain" is powerful, but it comes with responsibility. Are you creating genuine value that earns the space in users' lives? Or are you exploiting psychological vulnerabilities?
The test: If your product disappeared, would users' lives be genuinely worse, or would they just experience withdrawal from an artificial need you created?
Instagram makes people feel connected to friends and culture. But it also creates anxiety and comparison that didn't exist before. The best products maximize the former while minimizing the latter.
The Takeaway
Products don't fail because they're vitamins or painkillers. They fail because they never complete the journey from optional to essential.
The most successful products find latent needs, address them beautifully, create habits around the solution, and eventually transform into something users genuinely miss when it's gone.
That transformation, from vitamin to painkiller through habit formation, is the path to product-market fit that lasts.