How do you come up with a product idea?

Question

Dear PH members, I want to hear your story. What kind of builder are you and how do you relate yourself to the following criteria?

1. Do you prefer to find a problem first? It may or may not be related to your domain of expertise or work. Then you build a solution to address it.

2. Do you love building products? Some language or tech (like AI/AR/Automation/Design) you find very comfortable to work with and then find a related problem and solve it while building the product.

3. You envision a complete new product. Perhaps it's necessarily not solving an immediate problem but can open up a whole new dimension - so start building it.

4. You love to find a problem, followed by a market survey to see if this is going to be profitable or not. Then you build a product around it. Making chance of success higher.

Patricia Botić · Accepted Answer

In my opinion, the best products usually come out from trying to solve the issue that you are personally facing 🙂

Ivan Ralic · Answer

I love finding things that are not optimized at all and people are just used to doing it the plain old way, then trying to look at it from the 1st Principle Perspective 😄 Examples: ➜ Developers are used to building parts of the solution for 6 months - Create an API ➜ Businesses are used to using excel and sending dozens of emails to solve a challenge - Build a solution ➜ People are used to spending dozens of hours finding the perfect thing - Create an E-Commerce or Marketplace If they only save an hour monthly your subscription is cheaper than their hourly rate ($15, $30, $150)

Swapratim Roy · Answer

@5harath great insight - I like this approach too 👍

John Lins · Answer

Don't try to think of ideas, just involve yourself in stuff and they'll come naturally.

Swapratim Roy · Answer

@ralic what a great deductive ways to build things - love this mate. Simple yet powerful approach 👍

Answer

Well, there are different ways to come up with a product idea, but I usually start by identifying a problem that I or someone I know is experiencing and think about how to solve it.

John Lins · Answer

@swapratim_roy Ask yourself what interests you. Then start to involve yourself in whatever that is; you will inevitably find problems in that field the more you involve yourself in it.

If nothing interests you, then try stuff out and see what does.

Also, if you have a hobby and form friend groups around that hobby, you'll eventually hear them complaining about problems they have... you can solve those problems.

Swapratim Roy · Answer

@patricia_botic I totallly agree. I have had the same experience too 😃

Sharath Kuruganty · Answer

Look within - meaning look for problems you face on a day-to-day basis.

Also, I'm more of a "build something for myself and find other people like me" type of guy.

This always works because in the best case, you are building something for others; in the worst case, you are building something for yourself.

Ivan Ralic · Answer

@swapratim_roy thanks mate, glad to hear that 😄

Swapratim Roy · Answer

@mullinsjeffrey3 that’s the best way to start working on a problem 👍

Swapratim Roy · Answer

@johnlins thanks, quite helpful tip indeed. Personally I prefer to focus on a problem that I have encountered and then try to see if more people experience the same issue - then it becomes a quick validation to start working on a problem

Swapratim Roy · Answer

@johnlins but how do you choose to involve yourself in stuffs? Is that because they are work/ personal related things around you? 🤔

How do you come up with a product idea?

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