Reddit users don't hold back. When something frustrates them, they'll write thousand-word rants about it. They'll create entire threads dissecting why a product sucks or why a service let them down.

That's exactly where the value lies.

With over 70 million users logging in daily, you've got an ocean of problems to discover and solve. People are literally telling you what they need, what's broken, and what they'd pay for - completely unfiltered.

Your job? Look in the right places and filter out the noise from the signals.

Here's how I would go about mining Reddit as my main market research source.

Find the Right Subreddits

There's literally a subreddit for everything. And I mean everything.

• r/MealPrepSunday has 1.5M members obsessing over lunch containers.
• r/BuyItForLife has 1.2M people sharing products that actually last.
• r/PersonalFinance has 17M users stressed about money decisions.

But if you're not careful, this could be a limitation. You might miss the perfect communities hiding in plain sight.

Step one for getting good insights? Search in the right places.

For that, you can use an open-source project called Reddit Map Reddit Map. It's like Google Maps, but for subreddit communities.

Here's how to use it: Search for a community you're 100% sure about first. Let's say you sell productivity apps - start with r/productivity.

Then keep discovering related ones. You'll find r/GetStudying, r/ADHD, r/WorkFromHome, and dozens more. Make sure you cover all angles of your research.

Explore reddit conversations

This is the most fun part of the process… exploring conversations freely and seeing what people really think.

But there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it.

Reddit's built-in search is honestly terrible at searching subreddits. Sure, you have some options, but they're super primitive. You'll spend hours scrolling through irrelevant posts just to find one decent conversation.

The search filters are basic at best. You can sort by "hot" or "top" but good luck finding specific problems or pain points your customers are discussing.

Not saying you can't find amazing insights yourself, but I highly recommend trying a third-party tool that explores subreddits on your behalf. They give you highly relevant content to what you're looking for.

I recommend reddithunters.com and gummysearch.com. Both offer a free tier, so you can just use that to get started.

These tools do the heavy lifting, they scan through thousands of posts and surface the conversations that actually matter to your research. Instead of manually scrolling for hours, you get targeted results in minutes.

Analyze the Discussions

From here, it's a matter of genuinely trying to understand people's pain points and frustrations. Keep a close eye on the messaging used. There's a huge difference between "this is annoying" and "I HATE this with every fiber of my being!" The intensity tells you how desperate people are for a solution. Your job is mostly pattern recognition and seeing opportunities where others don't. Some people can spot opportunities on the fly, but if you're like me, here's what I do: I use a simple Google Sheet to track posts I find interesting, unique, or valuable. Don't try to be perfect - just make sure you collect posts and conversations that surprise you and aren't common sense. Here's an example of the sheet I use. feel free to make it yours Spreadsheet. After collecting 50-100 relevant posts, I feed the data to GPT5 or GROK. I ask it to identify recurring themes, pain points and potential market gaps.

Reddit is free, raw, unfiltered market research sitting right there waiting for you.

While your competitors are spending thousands on focus groups and surveys, you can discover the same insights (sometimes better ones) by simply listening to what people are already saying.

The key? Listen more than you talk. Lurk in communities. Pay attention to the problems people keep complaining about.

You'll discover opportunities your competitors are completely missing.

Your next step: Pick 2 subreddits today and start digging. Spend 30 minutes just reading and taking notes.