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11 Comments

How did you find a problem to solve? (except for scratching your own itch)

The title says it all. I'm wondering how you actually managed to find a problem to solve. Did you actively look for it? Did you have a systematic way?

  1. 5

    If you don't scratch your own itch, personally I think you will lose motivation sooner or later.

    If you look at the successful people on IH, you'll see they are all folks who have been working on their product for 1+ years or more.

    For me, I feel that you need the personal-interest factor to get your product beyond the 6-month, 1-year mark. It's the most excruciating feeling in the world to slowly grind out growth on something that you don't particularly care about. I've been there.

    Life is 100x better when you are working on something you are personally interested in, that solves a problem you personally had yourself.

  2. 4

    That's a great question!

    I was concerned about that exact problem a month ago when I joined IH. I had no meaningful idea to start working on. So I decided to pick up a habit of reading one IH interview a day and check the top 3 product hunt products daily till something pops up.

    Reading interviews led to reading Rework, which led to finding a way to learn how to write better, which led to an idea.

    I'm still scratching my own itch, but a systematic process eventually gave me that itch.

  3. 2

    Searched for successful products on Envato marketplace. Then picked one that I felt I could do better.

  4. 2

    I tend to hang out with certain people - in facebook groups, twitter, etc. I read conversations and see what people complain about. Then I think of ways to fix it.

    1. I saw a thread on a Facebook group about lawyers looking to make money on the side, besides the law, so I created a community to talk about that subject. I haven't monetized it, but pulling people together was the first step.
    2. I noticed people were having a hard time keeping track of webinars that provided continuing education credit (something people need to keep their license). So I created a community, and a newsletter. Not monetized. Might create original content and charge for that later.
    3. People complained webcast/webinar conferences lacked a social component, so I created a matchmaking service (manually match people), and it seems to be working so far, have a couple dozen people testing it out. Not monetized. Might charge for it as a professional warm intro service, or bundle it with a webinar subscription.
  5. 1

    Still a work in progress but companies approached me while I was focused on B2C and more often requested B2B services. So that's what I am developing the next few months.

  6. 1

    Read between the lines when hanging out with people of your business space. Check forums and chat groups to see what people talk and complain about. Then, think about solutions and ask people if they would like your ideas. If yes, keep doing research, if not, scrap it and build something else and repeat the procedere.

  7. 1

    There are lots of problems in the world, and then there are lots of ideas on how to solve them. But execution is where most people fail.
    Humans lose motivation pretty quick if they are doing something that is not somehow related to their own self. That's why scratching ones own itch isn't a bad place to start.

    The null hypothesis must be that your itch is NOT shared by the vast majority of people out there - and then poll the market to see if the data rejects that null hypothesis. If it does, you've found an itch that many people care about scratching.

  8. 1

    If you want to tackle a big problem, the UN Sustainable Development Goals is a good place to start: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

    These are problems faced worldwide or in specific places, and some of the can be narrowed down quite a bit. I, for example, found that in my country a huge amount of fresh food is wasted yearly even before reaching the end consumer. The solution was to connect with local farmers and create a farmer-to-consumer link, which in this case was a monthly box subscription.

    Some problems can be solved by software, some just can’t.

    I’ve also been thinking of creating a business idea directory, where people can share ideas they have had and don’t have the time or the desire to pursue. I’ve searched but couldn’t find anything similar.

    To wrap up, the best is definitely to always look inwards and reverse engineer your own day-to-day to find problems in your life. The world is changing, lots of new problems will arise with that.

    Good luck!

  9. 1

    Outside of trying to solve my own problems:

    -- I look at a successful business in one niche/location and see if the same model would work in another niche/location.

    -- I pick a random industry/niche/hobby, do some research, and then start brainstorming;
    -----where is the money in this industry
    -----how does the money flow
    -----what are the problems, idiosyncrasies, and annoyances in this industry, the trick is to try to see this from all the different perspectives: Manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, customer, service provider, etc.
    -----what simple or complex thing can solve that problem for some sector in that industry
    -----what is already being done, but is throwing off so much money that I can figure out a way to get a slice of that pie

    The more often I brainstorm, the easier it gets. The challenge is finding the ideas that check all the boxes for being worth further consideration. But it's a numbers game, if one idea out of every 100 ideas is worth looking into, that's cool with me.

  10. 1

    “The trick is to solve for the problem you have, not for the problem you want”

    “Whatever is in front of you, where responsibility has been abdicated opportunity awaits.”

    The other consideration to make is your exposure to creative work. I have found that you will be unable to even have the thought unless you have been exposed to a diverse range of experiences that can instigate the thought in the first place. Inspiration boards help, lean on your interests, lean on things you have done every day, over the years, or small things you can tweak. There’s always something there to work on making it better - it doesn’t even have to be software.

  11. 1

    I think scratching your own itch is the best way generally. There is probably something, you just need to realise you are itching in the first place.

    Most of the good ideas I've had came from actually realising I've been doing something manually for ages that could be automated. Or doing something which requires a load of small steps which could be automated. You just need to spend some time being super critical of all of your actions in a week and introspect a lot.

    Saying that the other option is to try and take an everyday synchronous tasks such as a conversation or meeting and work out how it could be made asynchronous via text or a video. At a very high level this is all slack or online video training etc has done. You just need to think a little more outside the box.

    I feel this is especially relevant now with some many businesses taking the switch from working in an office to working remotely.

  12. 3

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