Ask IH: Would you use this hypothetical product?
Hey Indie Hackers! So I've just come up with this idea, which was inspired by one of my daily routines. Right now, I'm thinking it can be called "The Idea Journal" which will be a simple showcasing website which helps people get in the routine of problem solving by creating a theoretical business idea every X days/weeks.
I think it would be awesome to have a community similar to this forum, in which it's all about ideas people have. It can be updated every day. This shouldn't be time consuming - nor should it seem like 'work' - rather this should just be something which someone can get on for a 20 minutes and hash out an idea. It doesn't have to be a good idea nor does it have to be 'profitable'. It simply will just be a journal of crazy ideas that you've come up with, which you can share to a community.
I think it'd be most time efficient if I created a template/guideline for someone to fill out (because I know it's hard to create an idea without being prompted with essential questions). I'll use "The Idea Journal" idea and fill out the forum which others would be able to fill as well (to serve as an example). This is a guideline I follow when I write my daily ideas.
Business Name: The Idea Journal
What is it? The Idea Journal will be a platform which problem solvers can share their daily ideas.
Who is it for? This platform is for problem solvers who either 1) want to exercise their minds by creating ideas or 2) look at other's ideas for inspiration
What problem is it solving? This is helping people exercise their minds and help to inspire them. It can be incorporated into a daily habit, which helps the mind process/get into its thinking mode!
Cool concepts: It can be similar to product hunt, in which every day, new ideas are posted. But rather than already executed products, these will be ideas that are only in the hypothetical realm. Home page could show the 'daily trending' idea that people have upvoted. Profiles can be like a blog, where every idea is logged like a journal.
Successful businesses usually are not created by brainstorming a hundred ideas but having strong conviction in one idea.
It has "skin in the game" problem.
If I have a strong conviction in an idea, I'll be busy implementing it.
I have no problem generating literally hundreds of ideas that are plausible but I don't believe in them strongly enough to actually start implementing them.
Another problem is "other people's ideas suck". There's a very strong psychological force:
You think people will be very interested in other people's ideas. Most likely they won't be.
Also, it's a network effects business. You need large number of posters/readers to make it self-sustaining otherwise it'll just die. If there are no ideas posted, no readers will be coming back. If there are no readers, there's no point posting ideas.
Finally, assuming that you plan this to be a business or at least a successful project, you have not shown that you have a monetization strategy or user acquisition strategy.
Cool idea - I really like the idea of making idea generation a daily habit! At the end of the day, I believe that you can get better at anything by just practicing it...including coming up with ideas. (that is what my project, www.tribefive.me is all about)
However, here are some immediate things that come to mind for you to think about:
Are people willing to pay for this (or will they ever be)? You'll be competing against free products like Evernote, or the Notepad app on each person's phone
Do people even want to share their ideas with the world? It seems like you are going after aspiring entrepreneurs who don't have a side project / business they are working on. Here is what I've noticed: newer / aspiring entrepreneurs think every idea they have is the next "billion dollar company" and hold it so close to the chest. It's only after they spend time on a place like Indie Hackers...then they realize it's all about execution.
Once your target audience finds their perfect idea they want to move forward with...will they still use your product?
Hope this helps you flush out Idea Journal more!
Cheers,
Jonathan
One thing I'd like to point out: Ideas are worthless without action. I don't think people will fear sharing their ideas because these are 'quick ideas' that may not even work, they're idealized in the sense where they don't have to worry if it will be profitable or not. And if someone has an idea that they think is profitable (that they're willing to try and execute), then my suggestion would for them to simply not post it!