A Guide to Startup ideas

5 simple steps to become an idea machine, generating ideas worth doing.

You may have heard it plenty “an idea can change your life”. Afterall, there are so many examples right? Google, Facebook, Instagram, AirBnB, Uber and the list goes on. A lot of us talk about ideas these days, in my opinion it’s a good culture, this is where every startup starts. Even if you don’t want to be an entrepreneur, if you are an idea person, then you will be able to solve all kinds of problems at work or at home. Ideas are the seeds and the first step towards a better future, even companies are now looking to hire people who have startup mindset. In this article you will learn five simple steps to come up with great ideas and become an idea machine. Each and every successful person use these steps in some or the other form.

Step 1: Where to look for ideas?

Each of us gets inspired differently, so there is no one place to find ideas, in essence though, “Idea is where the problem is”. The good thing is that problems are everywhere, it is very evident by the amount of complaining we all do generally.

1. Think about all those times when you are like “this sucks”, at your work, home, basically everywhere. For example “no easy way to find yoga teachers”, “food wastage at restaurants”, “increasing diabetes among young people”.
2. Some people are futurists and like to think about the world few years out from now, if you are one of those then try guessing those imminent problems it may bring. For example “difficult to find car charging stations”.
3. There are some low hanging fruits too, such as when you think or say “I would pay for it, if it was available” For example “financial reporting doesn’t get data from sales department”.

So, from now on, start writing everyday, all those things you find that don’t work or have problems. No matter what anyone says, “no idea is a stupid idea”. You won’t be doing anything with the 99% of the problems you identify, but you’ll get into the “idea mindset”, like some sort of idea detective.

Step 2: What to do with the collection of things “which suck”?

Start with problems which sticks for you, put them in some sort of short priority list. You have to be very strict in defining the entry criteria of this priority list. Start by asking yourself,

1. “Am I passionate about solving this problem?”, if you are not passionate about solving it, it’s a good possibility that it doesn’t matter to anyone else either.
2. “Do I have the expertise to solve the problem?”, this does not mean you need to know programming or any other technology, though it helps, but what you need to have is the domain knowledge or the unique insights about the problem area you want to solve. It is important to know that “value of an idea depends on the knowledge you carry”.
3. “I know for sure…”, you must be able to fill in the dots with things like, “this is cool”, “a lot of people want this”, “people would pay for this” etc. This type of assessment is based on instincts supported by a bit of research.

To have a priority list of good ideas, you must fulfill at least 2 out of the 3 criteria mentioned above.

Step 3: Well then, what is the solution?

If you have done a decent job of steps 1 and 2, you will naturally tend to see the problems you would “love” to solve. Choose one and start solving it, your job is to create a hypothesis, that’s it and more than one is ok. The key is not to be perfect, instead be open to research and improve the hypothesis as much as possible. Remember your solution should be at least one of the three — simpler, cheaper or faster, ideally all three. There will be challenges while solving the problem, if you are through and have the solution hypothesis, you get to be at step 4, otherwise pick another problem and repeat this step. Let’s say you picked the problem “difficult to find car charging stations”, then the solution hypothesis can be “a mobile app to find charging stations”.

Step 4: How to construct the idea?

By now, you should have the problem and typically one or two solution hypothesis. At this stage, you need to phrase your idea, ideally in the twitter 140 character format. However you phrase it should contain the problem you are solving, your solution and the hint of “why your solution is better?”. Oh this is hard, to convey all you have done so far in so little, but if you have something good, you’ll find a way to convey it. And again as said before, do not let perfect be the enemy of good. You’ll be refining this many times in the future as well. Let’s convert our car charging example to a constructed idea “a mobile app to find car charging stations by listing car charging points made available by individual homeowners”

Step 5: How to field test your idea?

Depending on your idea, you may be solving for business or consumers, first, identify people or companies who are likely to have the problem you are solving and share your constructed idea. Observe their reaction, ask “how do they overcome the problem now”, check, “if your solution would help” them and “if they would be willing to pay for it”. For a better outcome ask at least 10 relevant people. “be a little shameless when testing the idea, like some door to door salesman”. Instagram is probably the best playground to test and grow any consumer focused idea, I plan to write another blog on the subject.

Once you are done with all the steps you’ll most likely figure out at least one idea worth doing. This is a “eureka” moment, this is the seed you were looking to bet on. The only thing between you and your startup is your courage to dedicate your time towards it, “idea itself has no value, it's about what you do with your idea”. I will be sharing in the future blogs on what to do next, when you have an idea?

Things to watch out for:

1. You should not try to find ideas in terms of solution or how something can be done in a different way? for example, “a website for diabetes patient would be helpful”. You don’t know yet if someone has the problem to use the website, therefore,“idea is not where the solution is”.
2. Typically we get demotivated by others (competition), who are already solving the same problem, it is not a bad thing, it tells you that there is a market already established, there are people who are ready to buy, and now “you just need to have differentiation, a better solution to succeed”.
3. A lot of times, you may think or someone will tell you how hard it is to develop the solution, do not get deterred by it. If you have the passion, nothing is hard, “do not try to see the entire staircase, just focus on the step in front of you”.
4. Going from idea to execution is a life changing decision, even if you decide to do it part-time. The first characteristic of a founder is courage and then comes the relentless work. If you are not ready for it, “your idea will remain just an idea”.

My name is Nishant Modi. I am an entrepreneur, writer, former management consultant, founder of Zoob Labs, and Namaste Revolution. I share my learnings and help people in their own startup journey.