Indie Founders, How Did You Go About Finding Your Idea/Problem?

My product is still under dev but here was the process I used to find an idea-

1. Started looking at all the marketplaces with large builtin user bases. This could be the IOS App Store but it also includes plugin marketplaces for things like Notion, Slack, etc. Discoverability is a huge challenge for bootstrapped apps, so it seems like getting onto an existing marketplace would help a lot.

2. I looked up some numbers about which marketplaces were overserved and underserved, in terms of how many users they have, the total store revenue, how many apps exist already, etc. It seemed to me that the Atlassian marketplace (specifically Jira) looked pretty underserved. Lots of money and addressable users there. Which makes sense... it seems like almost everyone uses Jira but no one really likes it. So they're going to want plugins.

3. I searched through the list of Jira plugins and looked for apps that 1) had a high number of users and 2) had a relatively low star rating, with unhappy user reviews. I picked one of those and started building a competitor.

Everyday, note down whatever bothers you, whether it's a bad buying experience, your inability to find an item, etc... Generally speaking solving a problem that you already have is a great motivation.

At the end of the week check what you wrote down and try to find a problem that a lot of people are probably also facing.

Then do a quick study on how people are solving this problem, then start talking to the people to see how they're solving it (If they want to solve it in the first place, if they don't, it's probably not that big of a deal in the first place)

It would also be interesting to dig deeper into an industry/sector that you like. If you like sports then check the problems the industry is facing, you'll be more motivated if the problem you're solving is something that you actually enjoy.

Most of the time people will tell you to "scratch your own itch", but the thing is if you had an "itch to scratch" you wouldn't ask this question. I learned that you need to solve other people's problems, but how to find people with their problems is something I still don't know.
Maybe, if you are an interesting person with wide networking and a few hobbies you can try to start noticing problems around you, and if you are the same as me a boring dev with zero interests who is stuck in the "indie hacker/makers bubble" I have bad news for you:)

To make my comment at least a little useful - don't make problems out of anywhere and even if you created a problem in your mind please validate it first before building a product. I failed 2 times because I built products that no one cares about.

For exactly same I created this post hope you guys reply

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-am-out-of-problems-do-you-have-and-want-to-share-bd716d2d3b

As someone who's built 10+ side projects over the last 7 years, the hands-down absolute best way to find a problem/idea that you'll be willing to work on for a long time is to solve a problem that you have yourself.

This has the following advantages:

• You have your own problem, so you'll be using your own product. You can more easily figure out issues with your product and fix them than if you were solely relying on user feedback alone. And since you are a potential target user, you already have some background into how to solve it properly.
• You want to have your problem solved, so you'll be more motivated to continue working on the project. If you really believe in solving your problem, you'll continue working on it, even when it's hard and there are competitors way ahead of you.

There are other ways of finding problems, for sure. If you participate in some hobby or club (or know people who do), you can try talking to those people and find out what kinds of problems they might have. But if you don't personally have that problem, you'll find that you're using more willpower just to keep working on it.

A lot of people have commented the same including finding problems that bother you and people in your circles. What I would add is to not look for problems, but be aware of them. When you actively try to find problems to solve, you end up trying to solve minor inconveniences. Like tying your shoes: does it take time? Yes, it's slower than slippers. Would I buy an "auto shoe tie-r"? Not a chance.

Hi, I'm probably at a similar stage n situation like you. I've tried to learn to code but never stuck for long. On the contrary, I've quite many ideas that I'd like to solve but couldn't build earlier. So decided to pick up coding again. This time, I'm trying to solve a small problem that I want to fix. It's not from business point of view but to help me learn.

I'd suggest you to start here. If you find some problem you don't understand/not excited about, you'll lose focus. Right now, it's important to grab the skill than to make a business. Once you're confident and in flow, pick up other problems that you think can make a reasonable business.

That's what I have in mind for now. Hope it helps! :)

Hey! I created a list with tips will help you:

• Solve your own issues
• Hang-out in communities and look for recurrent pains
• Go to a review site like TrustPilot, look for bad noted apps, and start a better one

Subscribe to the https://newsletter.microns.io. Let's grow together!

Some prompts for your consideration:

• Think about things you pay for and what problems they solve. This validates that there's a market and might help you think of problems you personally encounter, which is an advantage when building.

• Examine experiences in your life that are unique to you. Maybe you've encountered people or contexts that most people haven't and have some intimate knowledge of problems in those spaces. This could include jobs, school, hobbies, etc.

• Look at what kinds of projects tend to make money on IndieHackers and what problems they solve.

• Start talking with lots of different people. I'm sure if you took any random office worker and asked them details about what they do and what issues they have you could generate a lot of ideas. Do you have any friends that you could just dive into how they do their work? In my experience people love sharing what they do all day and I've used this technique myself.

Of course the trick with any ideas you come up with is validating that your solutions actually solve the problems and are valuable.

I write similar stuff at Micro SaaS Ideas for 4000 subscribers (free & paid). You may check if that helps.