Why searching for business ideas is so frustrating?
I'm considering creating a simple tool (a web app?) to help people find business ideas that are relevant to their personality, skills etc. It's something that I was considering building for myself because I need to get more structured with my idea generation process, but then I thought that others could find it useful and thus I would love to hear your comments.
In my view the tool could offer tailored questions and simulation exercises to help you brainstorm problems or innovation ideas in fields that are relevant for you. It could also help you follow a structured brainstorming process consistently (I'm so bad at this!).
My question is - Do you guys think that this is something valuable? What frustrates you about the whole process of searching for new business ideas?
Thank you!
Interesting idea.
It reminds me of the tools that I used for brainstorming: job-to-be-done theory, value proposition map, market opportunity set, causal loop diagram, mind mapping, etc.
To me, the challenges are more on the market analysis and customer discovery side.
Thank you! I agree with you, the challenges are going to be market analysis and customer discovery. There is a lot of stuff around on how to generate business ideas, a lot of noise.
Any idea on how I could go ahead with customer discovery is appreciated :)
You are welcome.
Regarding the customer discovery, I think you are already doing it, like your post here. Perhaps, you just need to design and implement some structures and measure mechanisms around it.
For example, tuning your problem & solution statement, draw out the personas of your early adopters, find them here or through other online & offline platforms (such as meetup.com) as well as from your own network, design & conduct proper interviews to validate your problem & solution.
You may also want to write down the success criteria / expectations in advance for each task / stage so that you can gauge the development and take actions accordingly.
Check out the works from Steve Blank. He is actually the one who came out with the concept of customer development.
https://steveblank.com/category/customer-development/
Awesome! Thank you for the value 👍