"Cool idea" is starting to feel like the weakest validation signal

I’m starting to distrust “cool idea” as a validation signal. It feels good to hear, but it usually costs the person nothing.

The replies I trust more are the messy ones. Someone says they already export a CSV every week.

Or they keep a shared Google Sheet nobody likes, but everyone depends on. Or they pay for a tool they complain about because replacing it feels risky.

Or there is one person on the team who knows how to fix the process when it breaks. That tells me much more than a polite yes.

The best signal is not that someone understands the idea. It’s that they already changed their behavior because the problem was annoying enough.

I’m still trying to figure out where the line is between “annoying but tolerated” and “painful enough to pay.”

How do you make that distinction?