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Ask HN: How would you find a niche?

8 points by jwdunne ↗ HN
It's a dumb question from the outset but please bear with me!

A general piece of advice I've seen when starting a business is to scratch your own itch. In the highly-unlikely situation that you hadn't an itch to scratch, how would you go about finding a market to serve?

The first thing that immediately jumps to mind is to scratch a close-one's itch.

Another is looking at who I work for now, look at the faults and do it right. For example, conversion-rate optimisation is not really used at all where it definitely could be. Essentially just copy the company I work for and one up.

5 comments

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dwc
In my experience, most people who think they don't have an itch to scratch are so used to living with their itches that they think that's just the way things are. Realizing that every time you are frustrated in any way represents an opportunity to make things better is a personal "Aha!" moment.

Have you ever:

* Searched and searched for a product or service you thought must exist but essentially found nothing?

* Searched for a product or service and had to wade through 4 pages of results until you found what you were looking for?

* Tried to do a common task and been frustrated at how cumbersome the workflow was?

* Thought "if only I could..." or "why can't I just..."

Basically any time you say "dammit!" or "sheesh!" is an opportunity. Not all of these things will be solvable, or maybe solvable but not by you. But some will be solvable by you, and of those some might have a chance of turning a profit. But none of that will be available to you until you start realizing that you actually do have itches.

jdonato
Look at the company you work for. They probably do lots of things in archaic or inefficient ways. Hack something together that makes things easier, and then get your managers and co-workers using it so you can get feedback and make changes. Eventually you'll have a product that you might be able to sell.

Even better if you can solve a problem that is industry-wide instead of company-specific. That gives you a bigger market for whatever you come up with.

mikecsh
Just be cautious of any IP restrictions in your contract! Otherwise they may claim your code or sue you into oblivion!
chrisrickard
I think a great way to do it is to ask some friends & family about their jobs: 'What is the most inefficient part of your industry?'

It's quite an obvious one.. but sometimes getting that insight into another industry is super valuable. (I now have so much insight into the inefficiencies in the film and t.v pre-production due to my startup)