How do you find problems to solve?

DefinitelyMarc

Hi folks,

I'm not exactly an entrepreneur at the moment, but I create software in my spare time along the lines of videogames or websites for myself.

Since finishing all of my current pieces of software I've been having trouble with finding new ones to work on. I thought that it'd be much more fulfilling to make something "boring" that has a use in the real/working world, but the idea stage is proving much more difficult than the "make a videogame I'd want to play" approach that I've used in the past.

I've talked with a family member about creating an accountancy app (since he's an accountant and would know what accountants would need from an app) but have had trouble thinking of other problems I could try to solve too. I could go ahead with the accountancy app, but once it's finished I'll be back to square one.

So does anyone here have any ideas on how to solve my problem of finding problems to solve? :pac:

jimmii

Do more stuff! Over time you'll hopefully find some things you think should be done better.

Unless you find a real niche I wouldn't put too much time into an accountancy app there's a load of them that are very well funded hard to do something they haven't thought of already.

xabi

Pick a market, email / call them asking what their main problems are and what they would like to see simplified, spot a trend, fix the problem.

YellowSheep

Hi Marc. PM sent. Regards Oliver

At a basic level just observe the world around you that you interact with (websites, businesses, public bodies or whatever)

Any time you find something frustrating or slow or too expensive or inefficient or whatever is an opportunity for innovation. It doesn't necessarily mean that you will find profitable solutions but you will start to notice things more as you tune into it.