How to Generate Business Ideas: 3 Simple Techniques I Use to Brainstorm Projects
In 2022 I'm deploying the Spaghetti Technique 🍝
I ship micro-businesses and see what sticks.
To collect and manage my business ideas I built an idea bank, which I fill and review on a regular basis.
But how to generate ideas in the first place?
Techniques I Used So Far to Generate Business Ideas
Respond to a Request from a Friend
One day a friend reached out and had a question about a product and workflow that I was very familiar with.
Starting with someone's specific problem in mind is great because you can solve for a very specific context.
This constraint helps to reduce the scope of the project and ship quickly.
TL;DR: Requests for help are among the best ways to think about business ideas because (1) the requesting person perceives you as an 'expert' in an area and (2) has a pain point, which is large enough to go out of their way and ask someone for help. This is the smell of opportunity.
Respond to a Problem or Product Request from Social Media
Another time I got lucky and saw this Tweet in my timeline:
Product idea: Who can help me build this??
— Sara Campbell (@janedonuts) January 4, 2022
Problem: I can easily bang out 5K words a day to the group chat (gulp) but when I sit down to Write, it's much harder.
What if we built a bot that leads you with questions and pretends like it's talking to you?
This was one of those fortunate moments where a minimum-viable solution immediately sprung to mind: Replicate a chat interaction via a form.
Quick build attempt to help writers "easily bang out a good amount of words per day"
— Art Lapinsch (@artlapinsch) January 5, 2022
No-code build idea: Q&A style form to draft tool ✍️
I have a vague idea, let's see what we'll come up with.
Documenting the process in the comments below 👇https://t.co/PC61wn8SRR
What followed was a 2-day build sprint to create Draft Crony 🦹♂️
This is the finished result:
TL;DR: Your social media feeds (Facebook; Twitter; LinkedIn; Reddit; IndieHackers) are full of people who are sharing their challenges/problems. Tune in and see if it inspires you.
Solve Your Own Problem
This is probably the most common advice given in entrepreneurial circles: scratch your own itch!
Why? Because you are immediately solving for a concrete problem instead of an abstract one.
My specific problem was to structure my projects while I'm building and shipping micro-businesses. The solution was to create a linked/relational database in Notion to know when/what/how/why of all my projects. I call it an Idea Bank.
Get Idea Bank Template for FreeI'm using it in the wild and friends started using it for their own entrepreneurial journeys as well.
Using @artlapinsch's idea bank Notion template to organize all my thoughts. It's so easy to use and I love seeing everything written out in one place! #smallbets pic.twitter.com/KpNndM7DuU
— Mitra Raman (@ramannoodlez) January 25, 2022
TL;DR: If you have a problem, then chances are that other people have the same problem. Solve it for yourself and share it with others.
I hope this was helpful. Happy ideating!
Further Reading
- How to Get Startup Ideas (Paul Graham)
- My Studio Approach: 12 Projects in 12 Months (Art Lapinsch)
