Where do I go from having an idea?
I always come across problems in my day to day life and I sometimes feel like I stumble upon a good idea. I'm a developer so I can usually create what I have in mind given some time but I always don't know if the idea I have is even good or worth it. I currently have some ideas and I'm just wondering if there's some one I could talk to with discussing if these ideas are even worth perusing or someone who can help me in other aspects apart from programming. Some are things I don't really see are already created (meaning I'd be first in that "market") while others are things that already sort of exist. In any case, I also have the fear of just listing my ideas and have it taken. Maybe it's the paranoid person in me from watching movies or reading stories or I could just be over thinking it. Of course there's always the possibility that it sucks and wouldn't even matter but you never know :P
But yeah, long story short, if I have a couple ideas, where do I go from there in terms of deciding if I should pursue it or not?
If your goal is to generate revenue from your idea then I have some advice. If your goal is to experiment and learn (absolutely nothing wrong with this btw), and revenue isn't a major goal then ignore the rest of this comment as it isn't relevant.
Having been a part of three startups over the last 7 years, my advice is to validate your idea as soon as possible.
Here's a few ways to do this:
Build a basic marketing website that explains your product and include an "early access" form that captures email addresses. You can then reach out to these people and get feedback on why they were drawn to your product.
Look at your network and see if you know anyone that would suit your "ideal customer profile". Ask these people for feedback in return for coffee, a beer, or a nice meal.
If your idea is B2B, a great way to get instant feedback is to cold email people that fit your ideal customer profile
I can't remember where I read this quote, and don't remember the exact phrasing, but it went something along the lines of:
"Ideas are easy to come up with. Building software isn't that hard (in the grand scheme of things) too. What's hard is finding an idea that people are willing to pay for, and then executing. And executing doesn't just involved building, it involves sales, marketing, & growth."
If you look at IH the majority of posts here are about how to grow your idea, rather than how to build it. That's because growing your idea into something that generates money is the hard part.
This is great advice, thank you! I've sold a couple websites for a bit of money before and it was done using the first 2 points you mentioned. As for the third point, does emailing businesses actually work? I assume it's probably not the best but is it an actual viable option?
I'm going to take a somewhat different track than most of the advice you're likely to get.
You just need to answer one question to decide whether or not to pursue the idea: Have you got anything better to do?
Not just other ideas, but hobbies, day job, kids, etc. If none of those are an impediment, sure, why not? Go ahead. Just taking an idea and turning it into a project that is even partially functional and ready is an achievement in and of itself.
You may not finish the project. You may find that some parts are beyond your reach if you're doing it on your own. Still, those are things you wouldn't have found out if you hadn't tried and taken that first idea and worked on it. You'll learn new things about yourself, about the technology, about the context your idea fits into and who knows what else.
And if you do finish your project and it turns into a product that you can launch? Well, that's great, isn't it?
This is the mentality I've been going with for the longest time haha, I've started a couple of stuff and in the end it made a nice addition onto my portfolio on my capabilities :)
There are people that you can talk with on this. They're called (potential) users. Before even coding a single line, go find the market that you're trying to reach and get your idea validated.
Check out the Value Proposition Canvas (see the following link for a nice set of templates and a good explanation after signing up.. nb: i'm not affiliated ==> https://strategyzer.com/canvas/value-proposition-canvas)
It will help you to see if and how you're fixing a problem and most of all: creating value for the users.
Go from there by defining what functionality will be needed (the bare minimum that is needed!) and:
validate validat validate: talk to possible users about your solution
setup a landingpage so you can be found (and where you can refer people towards to let them see a concept definition)
writeup wireframes, make some mockup screens or sketches
define your MVP
⚖️validate and 🤓 learn, 🥅set goals, pinpoint📌 what your product must do, built an MVP🏗, Ship it!🚢
Find the shortest path to getting revenue on an idea. Revenue is the best kind of validation. I'm a big fan of low hanging fruit. The further away the revenue is, the harder it is to sustain motivation and get funding.
Shortest path means how you can get there in as little time as possible. I launched my app in 2 weeks, was cash positive by the second month. Don't worry too much about scaling yet. You'll probably have to pivot a few times, and you don't want to overbuild on something with no demand.
The greatest ideas are generally dismissed by others because they don't project the same vision and passion as you. But if you execute and implement ANY idea (new or existing) better than any in the market, you win big time. Ideas have almost zero intrinsic value. It's what you do with them that has value.
But generally you want to test the waters by creating a basic page describing the product and a form so people can interact with you. You'll decide if you should pursue it based on the feedback you receive.
@joeyinajiffy how do you even get feedback? Let's say you build the basic page and the form you mentioned, what then? Cold email? Cold calls? Something else?
This is where you try to leverage your creativity. But here are some well known ways:
Search twitter for keywords pertaining to your app and ask people if they're interested/willng to use/pay for your app
Search for forums or sub reddits that are related to your idea and ask for feedback
Nothing beats a face to face with your target users if you meet them. I've had random people come to me with surveys on some new product. I rarely turn them down when I'm free
Indiehackers!
Just get out there and get in front of potential users (friends, family, strangers, etc)
It's very simple really. Not easy as you will find out if you do it, but simple.
You have to decide some groups of people who could buy your product (assuming it's B2B).
Then find them on Linkedin, call their companies, ask for them and when you get them on the phone, quickly introduce yourself and product and ask if it's something they are interested in.
Then you take it from there.
This is a valid reason to worry, you are not paranoid person.
If you can create a landing page, and see if people attempt to sign-up (and use that to build an email list) that's the easiest way to see if an idea is feasible. All it costs is the domain name, web-hosting (which can just be github pages if on a shoe-string), and time.
Next thing you do is create an MVP (limit yourself to 1 - 3 months of development effort). Release it to social-media following and any emails you have collected from the landing page. If people pay for it, you may have something.
Then comes the hard part of growing and scaling.
I'm the idea man, with more than 100 projects launched in the last years. You can get in touch with me and I'll give you my 2 cents on your ideas and thus you can validate them. Ping me on Skype: toni.manolache
Toni, I am a bit like you (too many ideas for the time available to work on them), do your ideas meet each other or do you design them as standalone? Also how do you monitise and manage 100+ projects
Usually if I am really passionate about the idea I try to build an MVP and go from there. If it takes me nowhere then I have something else to showcase on my resume or portfolio.
I think you first have to realise that you will have millions of ideas in your lifetime and you can't work on them all. Work on just the things that filter to the top - either things you truly care about, things that solve a huge pain or things you have an advantage in.
Let the rest go.
Don't get too hung up on ideas because they come out of your own mind.
There will always be overlap in your ideas and those of other people. You have to come at it from the mindset that there is plenty of room for similar things to exist. You add your own unique twist.
If the idea that one having competitor makes you want to not work on something, then you're valuing the novelty of the idea too much.
If someone can 'take' an idea and do a better job on it than you can, then let them go for it. Your time is best spent on the things that are right for you.
If you ever want to talk about your ideas I do weekly 1:1 feedback over on at FeedbackFridays.com
Who are these ideas targeted at? Who's your ideal customer? How would you reach them?