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Ask HN: How can I find a "mission critical" company/consumer problem?

5 points by djsamson ↗ HN
Steven Blank describes in The Four Steps to the Epiphany that successful startups supply a "must-have" consumer product or solve a mission critical company problem. My problem has been with idea creation. I've been developing 'cool' ideas, but nothing that people absolutely need.

I really like Blank's book and I agree with his theory about developing a product hypothesis then talking to potential customers to test if the product is needed. This is basically a way to find customers first, see what they want then begin to build. But my question is, what if you don’t have a product hypothesis? How can you generate product/service ideas that are "must-have?" I've been told to "scratch my own itch," but many great startups are B2B. And finding problems that specific businesses face without being apart of that business is difficult. The same can be said for specific consumer markets.

4 comments

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dustingetz
lets take b2b companies, i know nothing about b2c[1]. not only do you have to find a problem, and understand the problem, and have a real answer why your team is better equipped to solve the problem than any others[2], you still need to be able to convince the customers of all this.

many of my role models became immensely successful by accident. they strove to be great, and worked hard, but didn't actively set out until a solution arose naturally from their career history, and they said "oh hey, i can do this!"

  [1] i actually know nothing about b2b other than working at 
      a small pharma-industry shop
  [2] you know, more than just a few crack twenty-something 
      coders -- you've got credible industry experts on your 
      team
Mz
You may need to develop a better mental model internally for analyzing what is critical and what's not. I have no idea what your nationality is, but most Americans seem blinded by cultural Affluenza and seem to have enormous difficulty figuring out what is "mission critical". Vast numbers of people seem to have great difficulty distinguishing, for example, style from substance.

What actual problems do you personally have that you are failing to resolve? Figure out why you are failing to resolve them and you will have some insight into why you develop "cool" ideas but nothing "mission critical"/must-have. If you aren't failing to resolve them, then odds are good that you will eventually resolve this as well, in due time.

Peace and best of luck.

bwh2
Your problem isn't creating ideas or a hypothesis to test, it's finding problems. Finding problems worth solving is really difficult unless 1) you're already an industry insider (scratch your own itch) or 2) you listen very closely to industry insiders. The hard part about listening is mustering up the courage to talk to somebody you don't know. But it's well worth it.
bricestacey
Get a job. Within a couple weeks you'll have some ideas.

Corollary: If you have been at a job for more than a year, find another.