My Latest Solution Journaling Experience

A real life experience of taking actual notes of problem and going ahead to solve them.

A few days ago, I shared a little about the "Solution Journaling" method. It’s my go-to for turning everyday problems into exciting projects. And today, I want to show you exactly how it works in practice with a personal problem I had that has turned into a product I’m building: a tennis app called "Let's Play".

Here’s the thing: I love tennis. It's like my therapy. I can play Tennis every day of the week. But a while back, I used to live and play in Ilorin but I travelled to Lagos for a few days. While I was in Lagos, I had my racket and balls, but no one to play with. It took a lot for me to come with rackets because I really wanted to play tennis. I wasn’t integrated into the tennis community in Lagos. Finding an available court was tough, and connecting with a trusted coach felt like you had to "know somebody who knows somebody."

I could have just complained about it, but instead, I started my Solution Journaling process. I wrote it down, I didn’t exactly have a solution to this problem but I knew the first step was to write it down. Let me walk you through what the process evolved into for me with this problem.

1. I Clearly Articulated the Problem

I started with a simple question: "What's the problem here?"

My journal entry looked something like this: "The tennis community in Lagos is fragmented. Players can't easily find partners. Courts are hard to book. And there's no trusted way to find a verified coach or handle payments."

This is the first step. You're not looking for a solution yet; you're just documenting the issue. Remember, you're becoming a "problem detective."

2. I Brainstormed Possible Solutions (No Filter)

Next, I spent a few minutes brainstorming wild, unfiltered ideas.

• A WhatsApp group for tennis players. (This already existed but I had to live in Lagos to know about it)

• A physical bulletin board at courts. (I wasn’t even able to get access to most of the courts)

• A simple app that lets you book a court and find a partner. (not bad, a lot of work, but I googled and found that apps like this exist in other countries, so its possible)

• A website with a list of coaches and their contact info. (Very low hanging fruit)

The goal isn’t to find the perfect idea. It's to build that "solution muscle" by simply exploring possibilities. The entrepreneurial mindset isn't a personality trait, it's a skill you can train.

3. I Built Something Small and Messy

I picked the simplest, most direct solution from my list: a basic app concept. I'm still early in my product design journey, and I realized I didn’t want to spend too much time just creating pretty mockups for Dribbble. What I really needed was to build something for real people.

I challenged myself to create something that would actually help people, starting with a minimal viable product (MVP) focused on Lagos. Why Lagos? Because Lagos has the highest concentration of tennis players and courts in Nigeria. I've experienced this exact problem, and I have the empathy and insight to design intentionally. The best part? It also gives me a contained environment to test, learn, and iterate with real users before trying to scale.

This is the simple landing page I designed, the goal was to start collecting emails for when the MVP is ready. I’m currently about 75% done. The good thing is I have over 100 people who have signed up already. So when the app is ready I won’t be starting from scratch. If you’re a tennis lover and you’ll like to know when the app is ready sign up at oyaletsplay.com

I also opened up an instagram account and twitter as well.

My advice to you is the same: Don't wait for permission. The world is full of problems waiting for you to solve them.

Start today. Start small. Start messy.

What's a problem in your life that you can start journaling about today? Reply and let me know.

Until next time, Keep solving. Keep building. Keep going.