Make something that doesn’t exist
If you can solve a previously unsolved problem, you’re going to have a much easier time getting users than if you build an incrementally better version of something that already exists.
Incremental improvements are hard to sell.
If your solution is 20% better than the next best alternative, you’re going to have to explain that benefit to users & convince them it’s worth the effort to switch from their current solution.
If you can find a completely unsolved problem and fix it, that’s a much easier pitch! (Do you like having this problem? No? Use my thing.)
”Unsolved” doesn’t mean the problem is hard; it means nobody has tried.
“Solve an unsolved problem” sounds like the kind of thing you need to be a genius to do, because we usually imagine an “unsolved problem” as something that many people have tried and failed to solve.
It doesn’t have to be that hard! The trick is to pick a problem that nobody has tried to solve. Focus in on a small, under-served community. The more narrow the target audience, the less well-served they will be by existing solutions.
With software, you can reach the whole world, so even a narrow group will be a large number of people. Narrow, targeted software can earn a lot of users.
How do you find ideas nobody ever tried before?
Don’t look for app ideas. Look for problems. If you can find an unsolved problem for a small community, that will lead you to a good solution.
There are two ways to identify problems for a small community:
- Obsessively interview people in that community to learn what problems they face. This is pretty difficult and requires a persistent & outgoing personality. (It’s not for me, but I’ve seen it done.)
- Solve a problem for yourself, in a small community you belong to. If you have a hobby or job, solve a problem you have there and share it with the folks who do the same thing you do.
Trying approach #2? The first step is to go live a life. Do your hobby. Attend your job. Stop soul-searching for problems and just go do something else. As soon as you get annoyed by something, stop and consider whether you could solve the problem better than anyone else ever has.