How to get ideas?

Ideas are everywhere but what about great ideas that can be turned into something tangible? And what about great ideas that change the world? To be honest I have no idea!

I have couple of those which address some of my personal needs or desires. A game I want to play but it's not available, a movie I want to see but it's not been made yet. Well, that's great but can I do something about it?

I guess yes but then there's a question - is it worth it? Sure you can do it for fun but if you want to start a proper business you'd better be good at doing what you are going to do or get killed. You'd have to do better than always.

1. Is there something that you know you can do well?
2. Is there something that bothers you in the chosen field?
3. Does it bother other people as well?
4. What can you do to improve the situation given the options you currently have?

These are just few questions I asked myself and came up with the answers:

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. I don't know, maybe.
4. Probably but the alternatives do not offer a solution being better in order of magnitude.

Last two answers need further analysis in order to understand if you have a valid idea. To get a proper answer for the question #3 you need to pick up the phone and start asking questions.

Number Four is the big question. You can be fairly sure that it has been tried before. Do some research. If the attempt has been unsuccessful then it's very hard to find out why because failures are seldom advertised. But there might also be some successful products. If so why don't you use them? Do you know they exist? They probably do. If they are not very prominent there are couple of places worth looking, e.g. here. If there's a product already covering your idea, you might still not be lost.

But you are lost if you do not validate your idea with your prospects. Who are they? Where to get them? Well this gives you a good excuse to call someone you already know but haven't talked to a while. And what to ask? Couple of very good ideas to start with here. WARNING! Some of these thoughts are field-tested by yours truly even before they came to his attention.

A month or so ago I called an old colleague of mine who is currently working for a company sooner or later going to buy a product similar to what I have in mind. So I talked to her and she was very open telling about their issues, the potential competition, selection criteria, personal preferences and so forth. Then I made a mistake and started telling that "I might have..." That was pretty much end of the customer interview.

Never tell the prospect about the product. Ask them about their preferences. Chances are that they won't be as open as my friend above but you might get very valuable feedback. If you are sticking in your product they will need to make a choice leading to multiple steps in their thoughts. Just let them tell what they want and you actually find out what they want.