Absolutely. Most people just go about their lives without continuously looking for new ways to do things. Find these people and extract their domain knowledge.
Most of us could probably spend a single day in the office of a company in a different industry and pick out a handful of ideas on ways they could improve their processes, or speedup tasks, or cutout waste. Not all of those ideas will require a technology-based solution, but surely a few of them will.
If you really want to find good problems to solve, try working as a temp for a few weeks. Ask lots of questions and make notes, I'm sure you'll find plenty of work to do.
Maybe that's a good startup idea right there; build a site where businesses can post their problems, procedures, workflows, painpoints, etc, and professionals can comment on them, offer suggestions, either using existing solutions (technical or not), or try to make business connections ("we can build that for you").
"Go work in them" can be a time consuming process. I wish it was possible to just work a couple of days in a given industry but it's much easier said then done. An alternative could be consulting but that can also involve a lot of commitment when all you really want is identifying opportunities - not build a consultancy biz from scratch.
Perhaps, a viable alternative could be to offer free consulting: much easier to land contracts and low commitment.
'Maybe that's a good startup idea right there; build a site where businesses can post their problems, procedures, workflows, painpoints, etc, and professionals can comment on them, offer suggestions, either using existing solutions (technical or not), or try to make business connections ("we can build that for you").'
I think it's a good idea but don't you think most businesses would be reluctant to show their problems to the web world?
Plus I think you would be inundated with a bunch of unique one-off problems that while technically could be solved/improved via a tech solution, lacks the footprint to make it worth anyone's time.
It sounds obvious, but go out and talk to people. As a slowly reforming introvert, just sitting down and talking to a random person can do crazy things to the way you think.
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Problems faced by the denizens of this site are more likely to be well-served by what already exists.
Try asking people in industries that rarely interface with the tech world. That's where you find the big, underserved problems.
Absolutely. Most people just go about their lives without continuously looking for new ways to do things. Find these people and extract their domain knowledge.
Which industries would that be? What is a good way to get in touch with them without looking too opportunist or ruining yourself? (genuine question)
Go work in them.
Most of us could probably spend a single day in the office of a company in a different industry and pick out a handful of ideas on ways they could improve their processes, or speedup tasks, or cutout waste. Not all of those ideas will require a technology-based solution, but surely a few of them will.
If you really want to find good problems to solve, try working as a temp for a few weeks. Ask lots of questions and make notes, I'm sure you'll find plenty of work to do.
Maybe that's a good startup idea right there; build a site where businesses can post their problems, procedures, workflows, painpoints, etc, and professionals can comment on them, offer suggestions, either using existing solutions (technical or not), or try to make business connections ("we can build that for you").
"Go work in them" can be a time consuming process. I wish it was possible to just work a couple of days in a given industry but it's much easier said then done. An alternative could be consulting but that can also involve a lot of commitment when all you really want is identifying opportunities - not build a consultancy biz from scratch.
Perhaps, a viable alternative could be to offer free consulting: much easier to land contracts and low commitment.
'Maybe that's a good startup idea right there; build a site where businesses can post their problems, procedures, workflows, painpoints, etc, and professionals can comment on them, offer suggestions, either using existing solutions (technical or not), or try to make business connections ("we can build that for you").'
I think it's a good idea but don't you think most businesses would be reluctant to show their problems to the web world?
Plus I think you would be inundated with a bunch of unique one-off problems that while technically could be solved/improved via a tech solution, lacks the footprint to make it worth anyone's time.
It sounds obvious, but go out and talk to people. As a slowly reforming introvert, just sitting down and talking to a random person can do crazy things to the way you think.