Don't waste time on the wrong idea

Ideation is an underrated part of the indie hacking process. Whether you're an "idea person" or someone who really has to work to light that bulb, adding some structure to the process can mean the difference between success and the product graveyard.

I caught up with founders who have brought multiple products to market to understand the mindsets and processes behind their ideas. Here's what they had to say. 👇

Ideation Processes

Interviews and byproducts

Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

I've built a lot of apps over the years and the ideas have come from all kinds of places. Some were born from scratching my own itch, others from randomly picking a large market that I figured I just needed a small slice of. Sometimes, I'd scratch the itch of friends.

My biggest success, however, came from the only time I truly talked to customers before writing any code. I went out with the intention of having a bunch of conversations with no specific product in mind. I simply asked about their processes and pains. While this isn't easy, I do believe it's the most guaranteed way to create a valuable product.

My approach was to reach out to friends and acquaintances who were decision makers at any company. Some ran agencies, others were managers or above at a company. I asked them all kinds of questions similar to what is talked about in the book The Mom Test, though this all happened well before The Mom Test came out.

I would do about five of these meetings at a time and then repeat with new people, occasionally having repeat conversations with somebody. It took a number of weeks, but by the end I had learned a ton about different processes and industries that I had previously known nothing about.

It's definitely a worthwhile process. A lot of people hesitate to do it, but once you get started, you'll find that it's not that scary after all.

I wish I always stuck to this approach, but the reality is I don't always stick to it.

Sometimes, I scour Reddit or forums, look at marketplaces, or often just stumble upon a problem that I need to solve for myself. I also really like to look at the byproducts of things that I've created. For example, I'm about to launch saaspulse.io, which is a byproduct of something I created for myself with my other SaaS, useaware.co.

Looking at byproducts is a great way to find valuable ideas and get them out the door. It's just a matter of packaging up something that you've already created.

Scratch your own itch

JT of No Code Founders:

I'm a firm believer in the "sell painkillers, not vitamins" philosophy — the idea that the best businesses solve problems. So I always start by looking for problems.

And for me, my best ideas have been those where I was scratching my own itch. That's my preferred approach.

But if I don't know anything about the industry, I have a basic framework I follow: I use sources like newspapers, Reddit, and Quora for inspiration (looking for problems to solve) and then I take examples of existing businesses in other sectors and apply them to the problem. Finally, I ask myself 2 questions: 1) Can it make money, and 2) can it be run by one person?

Don't think about it

Angus Cheng of Bank Statement Converter:

I don't spend time trying to think of ideas. I just go about my life and sort of look for ideas in the background.

Narrow down your search

Muhammad Taimoor Hassan of Trolly.ai:

Here are 5 methods that I use to find new ideas:

1. Narrow down your research. Basically, you have to do a breakdown of products to gather information on technology, business models, profits, growth strategies, etc. So for example, if you want to create something in AI → go to Google and search about AI technologies → check what's trending → pick one technology keyword → search for use cases → check products in the market → break down their pricing strategy, and so forth.
2. Get involved in communities. Follow every single person (from newbie to guru level) in the field you’re interested in. This will help you to feel into the next big thing you want to make.
3. Look for bad reviews of products and try to solve their problems.
4. Search startup directories to find out what's launching and trending.
5. Check out ad libraries and see what companies are selling.

Seize the inspo

Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

I've never sat down to think of ideas, specifically, I just pay attention to what people say — and more importantly, what they do. These things come up in everyday life.

When inspiration strikes, I immediately write it down in this format:

• Problem
• Solution
• How I'd build it

Just write things down as quickly as possible and don't stop until you've completely run out of thoughts.

Ideate in familiar territory

John Doherty of EditorNinja:

I don't have a tight ideation process, but I follow the guidelines of building something I know for an industry that I know, and where I am already well connected. Instead of trying to come up with some completely new and novel idea, bootstrappers are smart to build for people and industries they already know.

Try new things

Benjamin Katz of RM Flags:

I don’t follow a rigid process for coming up with new ideas. I think the best way to come up with new startup ideas is to simply put yourself in new situations and let the creative juices flow.

To be more specific, the ideas I’m most proud of have always come from one of a few categories of new experiences:

• I got a new job, then noticed an annoyance or something that could be automated while doing my work. This is the exact situation that led me to come up with the idea for RMFlags.
• I tried a new hobby. For example, I got into riding motorcycles a few years ago. Before I went ahead and bought a bike, I decided that I needed to get some high-quality motorcycle gear to protect myself in a crash scenario. However, when I started doing the research to figure out which gear offered a good value between price and protective attributes, I realized the information that I needed to make a decision was stored on various government websites in hard-to-understand formats. That led me to build a website that aggregated and color-coded safety data for the world’s motorcycle gear.
• I traveled somewhere new or had a new experience. When you travel, particularly when you solo travel, you meet a ton of new and interesting people and have unique experiences. Some of those experiences might be inefficient/annoying in some way, and then you can start thinking about how to improve whatever that thing is.

Create a product ecosystem

Matt Visiwig of SVG Backgrounds:

These days, when I tackle new product ideas, they're interconnected, building off of each other. This way, all my work benefits my product ecosystem, from my past work to the things I'll build in the future.

It took a bunch of trial and error to end up in this direction. Like the time I decided to pursue a "roasting" service idea and build it in 24 hours. Despite it doing better than many of my other projects, it was not a good fit for me. I learned plenty about the direction I wanted to head and my new ideas take me in that direction.

Mom test it

Adam Wright of JS Chimp:

My current process is:

1. Find a pre-validated idea or market
2. Study how those pre-validated products got customers
3. See what marketing methods might make it easy to get customers
4. Talk to customers (mom test) before I start building

Validate monetizability

Pete Codes of High Signal:

My ideation process has changed over the years. I definitely used to be a 'passion' entrepreneur who only worked on things I really cared about. But then I had a few passion projects which didn't make money.

So now I work on things I'm interested in, but which also have a clear business model and make money.

I would also say, don't work on B2C products as consumers have less money and are generally worse customers. Businesses have budgets for spending money and they are also nicer to work with.

Problem first; solution last

Courtland Allen of Indie Hackers:

The #1 rule is to put the problem first and the solution last. That's right: your product should be the last thing you think about.

Why? Because it's the most flexible. You can build anything, but other aspects are constrained. You have to choose from a limited set of viable problems, channels, and models. Always start with the constraints.

If you find yourself trying to think up product ideas, then you're putting the solution first. Not only is that backwards, but it's harder!

Hot tips

Start building (against specific criteria)

Mac Martine of The SaaS Bootstrapper:

There are so many ways to approach this, I'm hesitant to give anyone else advice. However, the advice I would like to have had when I was starting, would be to stop searching for one "big idea" and just start building something, particularly in the early days of starting.

Now, I still think the same way in a sense - that is, I try not to overthink it too much.

However, I do have a list of criteria that I check against when I'm vetting an idea in the early stages:

1. Has price point over $50 or $100, ideally
2. Is not dependent on a third-party platform
3. Solves a single high-value problem
4. Is something I would use.
5. Is something that I'm fairly confident I can market and find an audience for

Go B2B

JT of No Code Founders:

Sell painkillers. Look for problems that affect businesses, rather than consumers. And read newspapers (yep, they're still useful)

Seek labels

Courtland Allen of Indie Hackers:

It's best if the people who have the problem that you're solving hang out together and identify as a named group. For example, "developers" or "teachers" or "NBA fans" or "YouTubers." That means they're likely to make all sorts of recommendations to each other, including product recommendations, which makes word-of-mouth growth possible for your business. It also gives you juicy channels to target.

Pay attention

Hiram Núñez of Tee Tweets:

It really comes down to paying attention. Don't try to create something and then find the problem for it later. Instead, pay attention to what people say and do. Ask yourself why they say and do these things. What's it for? What does it bring them?

Don't ignore your personal problems, either. If you're having a problem with something, chances are you're not alone. Of course, the size of that market will vary depending on the problem, but you also never know where solving these seemingly small personal problems will lead.

Prioritize quantitatively

Benjamin Katz of RM Flags:

I like to write down all of my ideas in Notion, and I have a spreadsheet with the following columns which I use to help me figure out which possible ideas have the greatest opportunity of being “big”:

1. Idea description
2. How am I going to monetize this (subscriptions, affiliate links, one-time-payment, etc)
3. How excited am I about this (1-5)
4. How much specialized knowledge do I have about this idea (1-5)
5. What’s the market size (1-5)

I then take the average of the scores and rank using that, and use the output to know which idea to try next.

Think long term

Matt Visiwig of SVG Backgrounds:

Big ideas consist of thousands of mini assumptions — assumptions such as why people will want your solution, how they will use your product, how easy it will be to build, the best marketing channels, the price people will pay, etc.

First-time founders start where nearly EVERYTHING is an assumption. Early on, all planning and decisions are based on these assumptions. You'll make better decisions once you have taken action and seen outcomes, so build that MVP, talk to customers, or test social media channels. You don't really know until YOU experiment.

All this to say, "Think long term." Every action you take now can help you in the future. Learning something by building your first product, can potentially help on your 5th and 6th. Building an email list now can help you launch a future product.

Don't look for a big idea

John Doherty of EditorNinja:

I don't think indie hackers should try to come up with a big idea. Most indie hackers are simply trying to get a business off the ground and make their first dollar, or build a portfolio of businesses that pay them enough to support their lifestyle. Building businesses that meet existing needs is the best way to go, as it's basically foolproof.

Worry about "the big idea" later once you have business experience and are ready for that next level of personal and business growth!

Go where the money is exchanging hands

Courtland Allen of Indie Hackers:

Start by looking at where people are already spending lots of time and money and go from there. Money changing hands is almost always a sign that there's a valuable problem being solved.

Keep your day job and build slowly

Adam Wright of JS Chimp:

Try to keep your full-time job and build slowly over time. Just get your hands dirty building something. You'll learn lessons along the way regardless of whether it fails or succeeds.

And remember that building something is usually 20% of the work, while marketing is 80%.

Look for pre-validated ideas

Pete Codes of High Signal:
I would start out by looking for a proven idea that has been validated as a money maker and that you are also interested in. So for instance, SaaS starter kits are very popular now and there are lots for Django/React etc. Maybe someone could make one for a different language/framework?

That's maybe not the trendy idea of "go and change the world" but you can do something more ambitious in the future. For your first idea, you don't want to pick something really risky that no one has done before. If someone has already validated that people will pay for a product, that takes so much work off your hands.

I also think things like courses or newsletters are great things to start off with as you don't have to quit your job right away. You can definitely make a course or info product around your skills in your evenings and weekends. The same goes for newsletters, which scale really well and don't require many technical skills.

Skip pre-MVP validation

Angus Cheng of Bank Statement Converter:

If you've never built something before, try to build a minimal viable product as quickly as possible. Get it into production and then try to get people using it.

A lot of people say, "Validate your idea before you do anything." I've never done that, I think it's okay to skip validation if you can get into production within a month.

3-tier system

Muhammad Taimoor Hassan of Trolly.ai:

I categorized my project ideas into a 3-tier system based on how niche they are and how big the market gap is. It helps me prioritize the idea, allocate the budget, and create a development deadline.

And I believe in quick launches and product validation. If things go well, I start improving the product. If not, I move on. So, I try to ideate, build, and launch products within anywhere from a day to a month, depending on which tier they're in.

Business ideas, not product ideas

Courtland Allen of Indie Hackers:

Most people equate product ideas with business ideas. That's wrong. Your product is only one part of your business. There are at least four parts in total:

• The problem you're solving and the people who have it (i.e. the market)
• The distribution channels to reach customers
• The monetization model you use to make money
• The solution to the problem (i.e. your product or service)

Great business ideas are strong in all of these areas.

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