What was the problem behind your idea?
Most of us are full of ideas. Those ideas may come up as a reflection of our own problems or as a result of an observation and research in some field. But what makes an idea successful is the real problem behind it.
So what makes a problem real? The easy way to check it is to look if people are trying to solve it somehow right now. In that case you can just help them do that more easily and probably they will pay.
My ideas could not pass this initial check. So I'm wondering how did you guys start? What was the problem? How did you check it? What would be you number 1 thing to do once you have an idea?
We're perhaps a little bit of an unusual case, where we used the product itself - https://inqu.is/ - to check whether the problem existed...!
Good post though. You're right, an easy way to check is if people are trying to solve the problem right now. One step better is if they've tried to 'hack' together a solution themselves.
On top of that, it often helps to find out how the problem you've identified ranks compared to the other challenges/priorities in that person's world. Sure, they could relate to the problem, but if they've got 5 other things that are more important to them, it's going to be difficult to get traction.
Rob, amazing. Yes, you are absolutely right with problem ranking. BTW, your product has an amazing offer. It just hit me in my pain point. It is a rare moment when I felt this is something for me. Do you observe any issues with people concerned with you using their LinkedIn account? This one thing that made me feel "wait, better ask first"))
Hey Andrew. Thanks for saying so - great to hear it.
Can I just check, which people are you referring to here? Do you mean the person running the experiments? Or the people being contacted as part of it?
If the first, yes, we've had the occasional person not wanting to use their own LinkedIn account. So far, we've got around that by running the experiment from one of ours.
Re people being contacted, you (unsurprisingly!) don't get 100% response rate, but for the right ideas you get enough to get a good signal.
Hope that helps, but if I've misunderstood the question let me know...!
if you solve your own problem first... this is one way that you can easily "validate" it. have you done this?
I think this is a valid way of thinking 🙂. As for me, well, I am solving it now trying to reach people with experience I lack. Indie Hackers seams to be the right place to reach people and learn from their experience.
you're in the right place! this place is great!