Having trouble finding an idea to work on
Hey IH!
A little background:
I've worked for startups and flipped one of my own MVPs during the last 5 years or so, and I generally never had a shortage of ideas, just not enough time to implement them. Now that I'm in a place in my life where I got some spare time that I can spend on building a new project, I found myself suddenly in a rut and unable to come up with a project idea.
Speaking of ideas, let me get one important point out of the way. Just like many people here, I too, believe that implementation and market fit is much more important than "a magical idea" and I'm not shying away from doing things that are already done —maybe improving a certain aspect of them or narrowing down their niche further etc.
But even with this flexibility at hand, I can't seem to find a worthwhile problem at the moment.
So my question is; have you experienced a similar situation in the past and what have you done to find your next pursuit?
I was in a similar position a few months ago, where I wanted to do something of my own, but I just couldn't figure out what to do. So I started making a list of each and every idea I got. It doesn't matter however small it is or however stupid it sounds, just write it down.
Sooner or later, you'll have a collection of ideas (trust me on this) and your brain will connect the dots and you'll have an idea you'll like enough to validate. You can also mix and match your list of ideas to form a "new" idea.
I like to think that there are no new ideas, only combinations of already existing ideas, which when combined, work as a new idea.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.
I'm going through it right now.
My recent idea was an Image Editing Automation for a Niche. But looks like they aren't ready to pay for it in the form it is. I tried cold-messaging (on reddit) but no one is replying to me.
The mistake I made was, not validating the result that my tool provides.
Now I'm taking things super slow for next projects, and only when I'm 100% sure that people absolutely want it, I'm then going to start building it.
And this means, direct interest to pay.
The reason I'm doing this is, I don't want to create a product that people "might" pay for. I want to create something that people will definitely use and must pay for.
As you mentioned, another way to do it, is to see what people are already paying for, and then create something better than that.
You can also fill a gap in other products, but then again, some people are rather fine to just create a small workaround the gap, and may not necessarily pay for. So gotta be careful to not fall into trap...
So to answer your question, I'm currently just looking at products on product hunt, tracking their progress, browsing twitter, and looking at markets I'm interested in, browsing communities like reddit, discord etc.
EDIT: If some interesting gaps/problems pop up, my next step would be to involve in customer interviews and see why the problem exists and what steps they're currently taking to solve it.
Look for problems. Take a few of your friends in niches you like out to lunch. Talk about their problems with them. See if any interest you.
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.