A playbook for Generating Business Ideas

1. How to Identify Your Problems
To identify what problems you have, be observant of your challenges and unmet
needs. Ask yourself questions such as the following:
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What unmet needs do you have?
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What challenges do you face throughout the day?
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What product do you wish you had that doesn’t exist yet?
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What parts of your day take more time than they should?
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What do you wish you could spend less time on?
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What’s the hardest part about your job?

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2. Develop a Customer Persona and Validate Your Idea
Make sure you’re not the only one that has that problem or wants that product. In
order to build a profitable business, you will need to have customers.
It is very possible that you are the only one that would want your product or
service. I have seen this before.
Do some
customer
development
to see if other people also have the problem you
have or want that product you want. You can start by finding people similar to
you.
Let’s start with an example. Let’s say you are a student, and you realize that it’s
hard to find textbooks for your classes. So you decide to create an online
marketplace where students can buy and sell textbooks with each other. Who
else is likely to have a problem finding textbooks for classes?
There is probably a better chance that someone with a similar lifestyle and
outlook to you would want similar products than someone completely different
to you. For example, a 20-year-old white male studying at Harvard is probably
more likely to have similar needs to another 20-year-old white male studying at
Harvard than to a 60-year-old woman living in Vietnam. It is of course possible
that this would not be true, but it’s a good starting point.
So going back to the example of the textbook marketplace, think very
specifically about who else is likely to want to use it. The following questions
will help us think through it:
Why do you want a textbook marketplace? Why is it hard for you to find
textbooks for your classes?
Do you want a textbook marketplace because it will help you find books? Do
you want a textbook marketplace because it will save you time from searching?
Is it hard for you to find textbooks because you take classes where the books
required are not widely distributed? Is it because you don’t have a bookstore on
your campus? Is it because you don’t have a lot of time? Is it because you are
lazy?

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You might realize it’s hard for you to find the textbook for your “Psychology
719” class because you have been too busy to spend much time looking. You
could then think about what it is about you that causes you to be busy. Are you
too busy because you are taking hard classes? Are you too busy because you are
working a job when you aren’t in classes? Why do you want to save time?
Let’s say you narrow yourself down to realizing that what makes you want your
textbook marketplace so badly is that you are a law major, which has a heavier
workload than most other majors, at Harvard, which has a heavier workload than
most schools. And you want to save time so that you can spend more time
watching sports on TV.
So who else is likely to be busy and want to spend more time watching sports?
People just like you! People studying law at Harvard who like watching sports.
Go talk to those people, conduct a customer development interview, and
generally see if they have similar problems to you and want what you want.