market-researchNow, I know the question sounds too abstract, so I’ll try to explain. I work in IT industry and have a good amount of understanding of the modern ‘technology’, meaning I have the means to develop almost anything (software) on major platforms but unfortunately having the means doesn’t mean that you can create the best product with your market and customers figured out, one needs to be able to understand the ‘problem’ in depth. And the best products come from people who solve problems they face themselves. Since I work with startups, most problems I come across are business related, meaning they would solve a problem for a business (B2B). Now if I leave my job and start building a product for a business, I would face one critical problem: I can’t focus on sales and marketing while am trying to create the best quality product for businesses, and businesses are in general much more demanding than your average customers. The tool itself needs to be of the highest quality possible, and then there has to be a great support. So basically I don’t have the means to provide everything and will have to stick to a small problem that I can solve for regular customers and by myself, I have the capability to handle a smaller problem, for example a chat, or note application. Now the issue here is, well I am very ‘do it myself’ kind of guy. I very rarely rely on apps to do stuff, for example I only ever use emails,note, calculator, browser on my phone. And there are already very well executed apps for these. So coming to the question.
Where do I begin to research a “problem” regular users face, that I may or may not understand, once I pick up the problem, I know how to research further into it. Its just that first ray of light that am looking for. How would ‘you’ start your research.
What I’ve already done:
looked at other startups on angel and tried to find one that I could solve for other market. While this does provide insight into what others are doing, I crave for novelty and even if I ditch novelty, I really didn’t find anything that excites me.
researched ideas that I find interesting and look for its potential in a new market. I really like the idea of a great unserialised TV app (the universal Windows 10, excites me beyond anything, you can create so much in so little and apple tv/chromecast aren’t far behind either), so I researched into it but it seems this won’t have a good market for atleast a good 3-5 years.
So well, this question came to my mind, how someone with entrepreneurial spirit goes about finding a problem?
If you are okay with creating a mediocre solution for a small nitch, then by all means farm out the problem-selection process to others. If, on the other, you want to write something stellar, something beyond just functional, you are going to need more than just the technical skills to get the job done. You are going to need passion for seeing the job done well.
For that, someone else’s problem won’t be good enough. Your going to need a problem that vexes you constantly, which annoys you every time that it forces to use the current sub-optimal solution, when you know there has to be a better way. You want to attack a problem that is so personal to you, that even when you have a competently designed, functional product ready for the marketplace, you will already be ashamed of it such that you spend all your free time dreaming up features for version 2.0.
Are you too content with your tools and techniques to ever get annoyed by their limits? Well stop that! Contentment is just emotional apathy. Tolerance can be a sin.
Now, on to the answer to your question…
How do you find the problem?
Look around your life at all of the things that you have to do repeatedly. Especially the last minute activities which always seem to divide your working day from those rare moments when you get to relax and seek entertainment. Repetitive tasks which delay my free time, are to me more annoying than any of my daily tasks. Look for the transition moments in your life and find there, some petty annoyance which might fuel your ongoing development.
You’ve mentioned that you like the smart TV environments which are approaching, but that you don’t want to wait for the market to arrive. Easy answer for that. Don’t Wait! The api’s and protocols are out there right now. Start using them. Who cares if there are only a few thousand customers right now? The best time to enter a market is when it is just opening, before the flood of competitive alternatives arrive. You say that you don’t have time to market your idea while your coding it; nearly empty store shelves market their contents better than any pitch-man or artistic advertiser ever could.
I advise you to take Steve Blank’s course:
https://www.udacity.com/course/ep245
It teaches all of your questions in a detailed way. After taking the course you will certainly evolve and look at “how to spot and solve a problem” differently.
All content is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.