Where to Find Startup Ideas
7 strategies for entrepreneurs already with a value proposition in it
A common mistake, especially scientists who want to monetize their innovation, is to invent something and then find applications and then think how to sell them. This is rarely a winning strategy, as it does not take into account the users need. It is more a Russian roulette where the product/service will be adopted or not. More productive approaches rely on customers’ needs. As this is the basis of design thinking.
I discuss here some strategy/idea which can be applied in many fields.
Idea 1: Spend at least 10 days annotating every problem you see in the real world
Before getting to a “problem statement”, we need to find a problem, and then think about a solution. To find a problem, an approach can be to annotate each challenge we see people experience. A challenge can be at our specific working place, at home, or even in the street. Once a long list is acquired, the next steps would be to review it and device some conclusions to see if we can come up with possible solutions which can be monetized. Doing so, the definition of the value proposition will come natural.
It is relevant to keep an attentive mind on this for not just one day as challenges not necessarily manifest in one day and a longer alert time would be beneficial.
If we are interested in a specific niche, it would make more sense to follow and observe the ideal customer persona and see which challenges he or she encounters during a sufficient interval of time. E.g. if you are an engineer working in medtech, you should follow for more than 10 days doctors, nurses and technicians.
Idea 2: Ask to the ideal persona customer what are his or her pain
Instead of looking for challenges, a quick solution might be to ask directly to people which pain they experience during the day. This however requires that the person interviewed has already all answers. Most likely, it is not like this. Some people will be able to describe their pain easily, but others will not so keen to admit a challenges or to describe a potential solution to alleviate it. Straight questions like “which solution might be useful to you?” often lead to anywhere. There are several frameworks related to gamifications or based on empathy that can be used. It is relevant to conduct deep conversations where different aspects related to the life of the ideal customers are based. A guide can be an empathy map like the one below.
Idea 3: Do a SWOT analysis on existing companies
I spoke about this other times.
Quoting Hamilton Helmer who introduced the term “counter positioning”
“A newcomer adopts a new, superior business model which the incumbent does not mimic due to anticipated damage to their existing business.
Practically, you have to identify a weak point in a successful business, e.g. highly downloaded app with poor rating. If people use them it means there is a demand, but they are not fulfilling it totally. A common example is the renting system of Craiglist and the subsequent superior model of AirBNB for housing.
Idea 4: Technological shifts lead to innovative solutions
AI, drones, AR, quantum computing. Apart buzz words, those new technologies have paved the way to new business model, or better answers to existing customers demands.
However, very often novel technologies complicate easy solutions. Entrepreneurs need to be cautious while trying to innovate with technology. How often do great concepts fall flat because they were “ahead of their time”? Or things were just fads with no real advantages, do you remember the metaverse?
Nevertheless it is most of the time beneficial Keeping an eye out for changes in technology and the opportunities they bring is essential for technological innovation. For instance, Netflix only started to turn a profit after worldwide Internet and mobile broadband speeds were sufficient for high definition streaming. AI is becoming very common now that computers are powerful enough to train and run complex machine learning models.
Idea 5: The Jobs-to-be-done framework
This is again focused on needs and pain of an ideal customer persona.
An entrepreneur might develop business concepts by trying to understand the customer’s particular aim (the “job”) and the thought processes that would allow that consumer to use a good or service to accomplish the task using the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework. This is similar to the empathy framework, but more oriented on understanding what is the jobs-to-be-done. It comes from the book “Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice“ of Anthony Ulwick and Alexander Osterwander. As from the empathy map of Xplane, there is further material here.
For example, a company would like to automate some tasks, how can we provide solutions that automate those tasks and help it in its job?
Idea 6: Observe your ideal customer persona
People complain and search for solutions on platforms and forum online (Reddit, Linkedin, Twitter, Stackoverflow, etc).
Instead than choosing a brand-new problem to solve, many successful organizations first research their target customers to find any problems that already exist. Once you’ve discovered a problem that is either unsolved or has poor answers, you may step in with a product that appeals to that audience. Go and read what a comunity is complaining about. You can tap into forums and social media specific channel and understand what motivates the specific groups that are active on them.
Idea 7: The non-obvious markets
Another opportunity for business owners would be to look into failed projects to see whether they were just “ahead of their time.” If so, it’s time to take another look at the idea.
The best example of this is in games. Nintendo is a normally prosperous company, but it made a terrible mistake in 1995 when it debuted the “Virtual Boy” virtual reality device, which sold miserably and was swiftly removed off the market.
Many years later, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset was introduced on Kickstarter by the startup Oculus. Because of its success, Meta (called Facebook in those days) paid $2 billion acquire the company, proving the potential of virtual reality at the time. Yet, the usage on metaverse or as an alternative interface for Facebook have not been met.
Overall, a strong recommendation is read more about design thinking and materials from known organization as Ideo or the Standford biodesign center.