Ask IH: How do you come up with problems to solve?
Hey IH,
I actually don't always "come up" with problems but think about what I deal with frequently that's the most burdensome day to day. Of course ah-a moments happen a lot, but drilling down a solid problem can take patience.
A few examples:
One of the problems I'm solving has been a long time coming. Almost 3 years ago, I realized how much I email myself and how awful it was that I had to transfer everything to another app later or forgot about something important entirely. Now I'm working on Hitsnag, an app that lets you send what you email yourself straight to productivity tools like reminders, ideas, links for later, and almost anything you can imagine.
Would mean alot if you could spread the word and sign up yourself here for the upcoming launch in a month or so (trying to hit 50 ppl on the waitlist by the end of the first week of it being live): https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/hitsnag
For my extension pophurdle.com it was because of so many research papers and so many popups blocking my way to getting to the content I needed to get to. Having these popups I also discovered the apparent need for a privacy based popup blocker because the other available options sent data to sketchy places and sold browsing history.
I'm interested to see what you guys do and what's behind your process!
By the way, pat yourself on the back for everything you do, the grind is real! Man's pulling through college applications at the moment and I'm procrastinating on IH.😆
I'm running needgap just for this a problem validation platform where problems are the first class citizens. Posts are created by the consumers(incl. entrepreneurs) who have a problem, want to find a solution for their problem, check if others share the same problem, how ever small the problem might be. Builders can post their products in the comments if it solves that particular problem or else discuss with others to create a product to solve that problem(There are several products built/being built for problems from needgap).
I'm not saying I've solved the issue of validating problems, far from it. I think I now have a direction towards understanding the 'language, grammar of problems and startup ideas' which might one day result in making validation easier.
Thats awesome, I wish you the best as you progress the stages! There's always room for improvement regardless of what point people are at!
Similar to others, I have an 'Ideas' list where I jot down things that would make my life easier. I've moved to using Notion for this list (Previously using Evernote) so I can either add 'build this thing' or I can open up a page and expand on the idea.
I've built a few things to help myself and put them out into the wild in case it could help somebody else. Interestingly, this has been a good source of validation for an idea where people have asked for more features and if there is a paid version.
Nice, I should def try to figure out how to hook up Hitsnag to notion after launch!
I note down the problems I face from time to time in a list.
Then one fine day, I start looking for solutions one by one and find out what all they offer. Try a lot of them. If I can't find anything which I would like to use long term, I will consider solving the problem myself.
I will wait for the problem to keep coming back again and again, so that finally I will have no option other than to just build it.
If I'm not planning to put out in the world, I'll make it just functional, without any care about the UI/UX. I just want it to work. If I feel like others might find it useful, I will to polish the UI and publish it.
I'm now working on improving this last part. I have to find real data about if people will find it useful and then polish the UI/UX.
The two apps I've published and the countless ones which never left my machine/phone, have all been through more or less similar process.
Nice! I also have some apps that have never seen the public but are functional towards me.
I use my clients' problems as a starting point... They think I'm the consultant, but maybe it goes both ways.
Haha nice!
Just hearing people complaining about something enough gets me interested! I usually put it somewhere Ill remember and if someone will pay me to solve it, Ill try to.