7
12 Comments

Where do you find product ideas?

Hey folks, I’m always reading about the importance of speaking to your potential customers to be guided around what to build.
How do you guys go about doing this?

I find there’s such an overwhelming choice of industries and don’t know the problems each industry face so find this kills my motivation. Do you just could call or post on forums to different industries? How do you choose which industry? Be great to hear your thoughts on how you start super early with a new business.

Thanks in advance! 🙏

  1. 4

    Just for context - I write some of the profitable micro saas ideas here for about 500 subscribers (both free and paid).

    Ideas with in some industries need some good domain knowledge.
    However, there are a lot of other profitable niches which doesn't need complex domain knowledge. With some research you should be able to get on to these domains.

    I wrote about Notion products, Twitter automation tools, micro saas products for Airtable eco systems, Keyword monitoring tools and a bunch of profitable micro saas ideas- None of these needs a lot of domain knowledge.

    Would be happy to help.

    1. 1

      Nice one thanks for sharing, I’ll definitely check this out! Any suggestion for finding product market fit, or do you think it’s a case of just getting started? I think I’ve been taking the finding your audience first a bit too literally, where it should be more taking a concept and get building to test the response. Thanks for your help

      1. 1

        You are correct. It depends on the domain. Most domains are easy to pick with a little amount of research and study.

        "Finding your audience" term is little tricky.

        But most ideas from my newsletter also talk about technical implementation and also has a section on how to get initial audience. But yes, the point is to take action - pick something, start with a landing page and get started.

  2. 3

    What's wrong with choosing the industry you are currently in? Otherwise the industry your partner is in or the industry your hobbies are in. To gate crash an industry beyond that is going to be slow. You would need to find a partner. But that just leads back to the first question.

    1. 1

      Yeah fair point, and to a certain extent I had been expecting that response. My feeling is though thst my industry is already forward thinking and quite far developed. Am thinking more of spotting untapped opportunity in different niches. I’m in quite a crowded marketplace.

      1. 1

        What about hobbies. What's your passion outside work. What industry would you like to be in. I guess there's a venn diagram somewhere with interest, opportunity & ability. For anything long-term it's better to have an inherent interest imo. But regardless, everyone you know is a potential customer (they all consume) and you are already talking to them so why not look there first?

        1. 2

          Yeah really great insight, thanks for sharing!

  3. 2

    In the same spirit of some of the other comments, don't chase the almighty dollar.

    If you're looking to build anything just so you can make money, you may be doing yourself a disservice.

    Not saying that it's not possible to make good money by finding an underserved market, but will it be something you enjoy doing? Sure, it's fun to make money, but maybe it's more important to do something you enjoy doing.

    I'm mostly saying this because I've reached this exact point in my life. Been doing stuff I don't truly enjoy doing for so many years, because I saw the "potential".

    Each initiative brought its own set of interesting challenges that kept me engaged in working on them. What I didn't realize at the time, was that I was more interested in the potential of earning money, than I was interested in the actual business venture / side-hustle.

    I'm working on changing that right now. I closed down one business entirely, after working on it for 12+ years. I am also considering getting rid of my other side-hustles, so I can focus on trying to find something I love working on.

    Good luck to you in whatever you decide.

    1. 2

      This is such great advice, and to be honest something I’m going through and had been struggling with years of my life. For a long time I’ve been solely focused on success and been frustrated to see others do so well in different fields. This has lead me to what seems to have a been an incorrect perspective. I’m starting to appreciate that if I’m chasing the money it may never come, if it does, I may never enjoy the journey, so you are spot on, thank you

      1. 1

        ^ Exactly this. Agree 100%

  4. 1

    Play to your strengths! Become very perceptive of your own mind when it tells you "Hey this is a problem" or "Hey I'm doing this, but this can be done so much better". Once those thoughts occur to you explore them! Dive into them and start analysing them, asking yourself where they come from and what you, yourself, actually mean when thinking it.

    These are great moments that spark an idea that is not necessarily bound to any industry (initially), but to solve a problem that you perceive. The solution to this problem can be embodied in a product, a service or anything in between or outside of that box.

    Once you train this approach it becomes much easier to also think of ideas outside of your industry and find ways to validate it with other people in that industry. Just let those ideas and thoughts flow!

    Hopefully this helps you somewhat :)

    1. 2

      Thanks for this, makes a lot of sense. I think I've probably got in the bad habit for not seeing the wood for the tree's and looking past what challenges there are in my day to day. Appreciate the help!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 28 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 14 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments