I completely agree with picking a pain that you are experiencing and try to solve it.
In addition to the pluses mentioned above, solving a pain you experience means you will be in a position to "dog-food" your own solution. This is obvious but worth reiterating. If, for example, you solve a problem that people other than you have, then you will not be using your own solution, and this is likely to lead you astray.
Having said that, be careful about being too "niche" or too personal with your solution. After you have come up with a problem you would like to solve for yourself, and you have ideas on how to solve it, go out and ask others:
- do you have this pain?
- how bad is it?
- if someone offered solution X for Y dollars, would you consider it?
- what would be some of the requirements and hangups that will keep you from adopting solution X?
In other words you don't want to solve your pain and then find out nobody else perceived the same pain in the same way. That's a one-way ticket to the deadpool.
Comments
I completely agree with picking a pain that you are experiencing and try to solve it.
In addition to the pluses mentioned above, solving a pain you experience means you will be in a position to "dog-food" your own solution. This is obvious but worth reiterating. If, for example, you solve a problem that people other than you have, then you will not be using your own solution, and this is likely to lead you astray.
Having said that, be careful about being too "niche" or too personal with your solution. After you have come up with a problem you would like to solve for yourself, and you have ideas on how to solve it, go out and ask others: - do you have this pain? - how bad is it? - if someone offered solution X for Y dollars, would you consider it? - what would be some of the requirements and hangups that will keep you from adopting solution X?
In other words you don't want to solve your pain and then find out nobody else perceived the same pain in the same way. That's a one-way ticket to the deadpool.