Searching for Ideas as a Developer is Painful.
I've been dedicating serious amounts of time every day to trying to find good problems to solve. I really want 2020 to be the year I make my IndieHacking debut!
In the past, I've just kinda gone with whatever idea seemed fun and cool. Consequently, all those projects ended up without a real market, or with me having no way to market the product..
#ValidateFirst 'single tear'..
This time around I've been approaching the idea generation process with a strong focus on me. Who am I? What markets do I belong to and understand? It seems like the majority of IH successes have founders who were in the market.
For example I'm a: Developer
and I like: Photography, videography, hydroponics, craft beer, woodworking, strength training, and anime/manga.
From the above, the natural choice is to reflect on my work as a developer, but I can't see myself building something for developers. I like being a Dev, but I don't want to build for devs. I get the feeling many other IHers feel the same way.
I like my hobbies, but I don't do them in a professional capacity. It looks like my SaaS Developer Superpower is actually going to work against me..
It's a conundrum...
I'm having the same thoughts man ... Besides coding and machine learning, I have some knowledge in strength training and self development. We should create a group "devs looking for domain knowledge" hahahaha.
I would suggest you read the book Start from Zero. It's written by one of my mentors and gives you all the tools you need to start a business with no ideas. He's started several successful SaaS companies. His advice for finding a problem is to get out and ask people the following five questions: 1. Over the course of the last year , what has been your most persistent and present problem ?
2. How do you currently go about solving that problem ?
3. What happens if you don’t solve that problem ?
4. What would your dream solution be ? ( Or ) If you could wave a magic wand how would you solve this problem ?
5. Would that be worth paying for , and if so , how much ?
I'll check it out!
It is painful for you because you are trying to be somebody else. Why don't you find a partner(s) with a good idea (with a waiting list, pre-registered users for beta version, market researched, potential customers interviewed). And be yourself - be a developer. Get a team: developer (you), product person (naming, branding, marketing, project management), UX/UI designer. If you have no idea, it does make sense joining a team.
This is a valid path, significantly less painful path for sure. If the opportunity arose, I would definitely consider it!
I bought and read that "Start from Zero" book above yesterday (thanks @nathanrodgers!) and It helped me realize I'm approaching this the entirely wrong way. I'd be a lot more successful, if I genuinely talked to others, and found out their actual problems. I got into development in the first place because I liked solving problems and building things it would be complementary.
@IdentityTensor , good luck with your search: for the idea and for your team. If at some point you deside to look actively, let me know, as I am building a platform to help with the search for both.
Glad you found the book helpful! I'll let Dane know
You are a developer. You know how to write software - that's a valuable skill. There's certainly demand for that. So how about starting a software agency?
Definitely considered this. Ultimately, I figured I'd still be selling my time for money, and would struggle finding clients. Maybe I should consider a productized version of this yet still. It could be a good stepping stone. Good thought!
Are you familiar with ikigai concept? Google it. It might help. But I can totally feel your pain!
I haven't but this look exactly like what I've been trying to find. Thank you for sharing!
Hey @abnersuniga, @kiril, @kishimag - I'm making a mastermind group focused on Idea Extraction if any of you all are interested
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/idea-extraction-mastermind-group-27baa0e283
I face the same issue right now. I really like coding and have my own hobbies as well, but I can't really find that problem which people would pay me to writesoftware to solve it.
Eah this just kinda ended up being me organizing my thoughts. Sorry if it's not very useful.
For what it's worth, I am in the exact same boat. I know I am developer, my hobbies aren't areas I think I can go as a professional either.
I have looked into ikagai and I think your thought exercise is the beginning of that research. In a nutshell: what am I good at, what are people willing to pay for, what am I passionate about, then the intersection is 'nirvana'.
From what I've read recently, I guess the idea is to spend time in those hobbies and identify problems and build solutions from there. I could imagine there could be tons of problems to solve in your hobbies (or mine)
Regarding the software agency. I feel the same, quitting my day job as a software engineer to do consulting type work would be the same, I would end up working on projects that aren't mine or might not be exciting.
Let me know if you ever make some personal discoveries on getting out of this paradox.
I definitely will! It's nice to know I'm not the only one struggling with this.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago.