How to track your ideas?

I throw everything into a Google spreadsheet that forces me to think about the actual customer problem and who it's for. If you can't answer those two questions then all you have is a cool idea for a project, not a potential startup idea.

Nothing wrong with the former of course, but if you're intending to make money off the back of a "cool project idea" you might be in for an uphill struggle.

Then in a follow up step I evaluate the idea across a bunch of different criteria, those being:

• Hair on Fire, is this a nice-to-have or a must-have?

• Access to Market, do I have easy access to potential customers?

• Day 1 Revenue, does this have the potential to make money from day 1 or does commercialization require further thought?

• Revenue Scalability, does this target market have scale?

• Defensibility, how hard would it be for someone to create a copycat?

• Lack of Competitors, is this blue ocean or red ocean space?

• Personal Passion, is this aligned with my interests?

• Unfair Advantage, do I have some special skill set that makes me the perfect person to launch this?

• IP Creation, will I be creating something of technical value that could be re-used elsewhere?

• Acquisition Potential, is this idea in a space where there is acquisition activity?

It sounds like a lot, but I think it's good to put your ideas through the meat grinder. You really start to see which ones might have potential and which ones are just cool-sounding.

If anyone is interested, I put a template of the google sheet I use up for public use - make a copy and use as you like!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yUlKlL8MIxlgSNH0t-aDKPVdrDhFSSb_0pVdk-f0qIE/edit?usp=sharing

Hey :)

I am currently keeping log of my ideas in a simple Markdown editor.

I found that for me it's not enough as I often forget to get back and re-asses them.

Thus I decided to learn React js and build a tool for myself that i might share with others. It's ongoing and I suppose I will deploy within a week or two 🤞

🧠To learn more about how other manage their ideas I posted a question here: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/how-do-you-manage-your-ideas-gonna-build-an-mvp-to-learn-react-09a9e21ab8

You could find some inspiration there.

Cheers!

I use Notion. I have a simple table with a name, a description, a “status” tag (Concept, Promising, Building, On Hold, Launched) and a tag for an intended revenue model (Subscription, Ads, Open Source/Free). When I want to start adding more detail than that and really start exploring the idea, the name becomes a link to its own Notion page, where I can jot notes, save bookmarks, and eventually add a task Kanban board when I start building. It basically does what I used to use Bear, Pinboard, and Trello for, all in one place.

Google Keep, straight simple!

https://workflowy.com/

I've been really happy with Bear, a simple, clean markdown editor. It's sync'd between by phone and laptop which is a must.

For daily notes, and plans I use Noteplan which is like a calendar + markdown editor that's also sync'd. I get a note per day, and the ability to easily schedule tasks for following days. The combo of these two has been excellent for tracking ideas, and staying focused. Ideally they would merge, but I'm happy to keep tasks and notes separate.

I use apple's note app because it auto syncs between my phone and laptop through icloud.

Microsoft OneNote

My process is pretty simple, I just use a static HTML page in an unadvertised folder on my personal domain. Each new idea gets a new page and I add any thoughts, links, etc.

It keeps everything in one place and I can update it pretty quickly by just having a terminal open during research and idea generation.

I keep my process pretty lightweight.

I use Trello for a scratch pad of ideas. I keep a backlog as things come to mind and then move them to columns 3,4, or 5 based on my interest level in building it as well as whether or not it is a viable idea. Things I am actively building go in their own column. The cards typically have a general idea and any customer research/feedback I have gathered.

When I am actively working on a project, I use Pivotal Tracker to track epics, features, and day to day tasks.

I put everything on Google Keep :D

I setup a dokuwiki years ago, that I also use to gather information for my ideas.

I use kanbanflow. I write my ideas for both work related and personal project. the work ideas gets done somehow but the project ideas never gets done :)

EverNote is an ultimate tool, using since last 7 years consistently. Most times I would use SimpleMind on the phone.

But for organisations that are looking to crowdsource ideas, we have developed a mobile & web based idea management platform - Indonis which you can check out here https://www.indonis.com.

Employees & customers can share ideas, those can be reviewed by an expert panel (mapped to idea boxes) and ultimately tracked as micro-projects & tasks till they are fully deployed. Best ideas and employees get rewarded as per the organisation's policy.

That's a big part of why I started building my open source project, http://brisaboards.com! I had a google doc, then switched to a sheet to track more ideas, and then never looked at it because it was too difficult to expand on ideas.

I decided to build something that would let me have a list of ideas, and then expand them as I got more into a project. So I built an app with whiteboards, kanbans, and sheets, and any entry inside of them can be expanded to another (for example, if I have a sheet with a list of ideas, I can expand an idea I want to work on into a kanban).

I also made the API flexible, so I can use it to prototype ideas I want to work on, or collect information from other places within the app :)

I used to jot down ideas, now I just build them out one by one. I actually created a "presentation platform" https://qkast.com to house concepts. Honestly, just one or two ideas will take up all my time. And I keep them in my head and sometimes in a Sublime tab.

I mainly use the stock Notes app. I can add from both my phone and laptop with icloud syncing, so it's perfect for me. I typically collect more research/screenshots and keep each separate project as a folder on my computer.

Hey @Vokail I think your process sounds great. I got ToDoist a few months ago and have a project for adding all of my ideas in the app. I use Asana for managing my actual projects but love the simplicity of ToDoist to track tasks and ideas.

Trello everything.

I use my note taking app (Laverna) for writing every ideas I have. It's a bit a mess but I strongly believe that writing down ideas somewhere (my "idea bag") generate new ideas when I read them days later.

For what I consider good ideas, I have a mindmap (using Freemind) synchronized via Nextcloud.

Why a mindmap?

1. You have everything on one screen

2. You can connect your idea

3. You can choose what idea you want to display

4. You can sort them very intuitively

5. I love mindmaps :D

Also Trello! I have an ideas board with lists of the various ideas, keeps it simple and anything I go ahead and start gets its own board.