Personally I think coming up with an idea and writing copy for the launch can be the most frustrating parts. Not necessarily difficult just takes time I’d rather spend hacking.
@calo Coming up with an idea which you truly understand in depth (from your experience or learning from other's experiences) is the hardest part. If you truly understand the problem well, I feel articulating it through a copy is relatively easier. Its when we struggle to understand the problem we are solving is when we struggle to write a good copy
@tini91 Can't agree with this more. Lots of people are looking for problems to solve and not solving a problem they had.
I've built a few solutions now over the past year to help me or my clients with very specific problems and I think they would help other people but they are very specific solutions targeted towards companies with particular pain points.
But I know they have value because I use them myself.
Been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot even with all my experience working with startups for over a decade.
@tini91 Yea the advice is to solve a problem you experience yourself but if you are young the amount of expertise you have to experience problems is low.
@calo Totally agree and thats why its hard. One way to solve for this is to just network with diff kind of people with more experience than you. This can accelerate your understanding about the domains you will not be aware of due to lack of experience
However, there definitely is a gray area when it comes to this in terms of ideating and building a product.
Gotta be familiar enough with a problem to build a practical and valuable solution, but also can’t focus on being TOO familiar with a problem as then you’ll never take action.
@calo Personally I don't think it often works out to deliberately try and come up with an idea. The best ideas that are actually worth solving usually come naturally from being an expert in a domain and knowing the hurdles in that domain. Just my opinion.
So in a sense, coming up with an idea is hard because you need to be a domain expert to know the problems of the domain, but the idea itself usually comes to you naturally after having spent some time in the domain.
Agree but when you are young and experience is narrow it’s hard to come up with novel ideas. I can think of tons to make student lives easier but selling to students is never easy
@calo Thanks for the link, looks like a cool read, will read it now!
Agreed, some people just aren't experts in a domain worth building a SaaS for. Second best option I think is to survey domain experts and get their feedback on which problems are worth solving.
@bigfranck22 Yes I did this recently, called someone up and asked them questions like “what tasks are you repeatedly doing in your business”. Got a solid start point but would definitely need a few more hours of conversation to narrow down the problem.
The gap between what founders think users need and what users actually need is unavoidable. So the real breakthrough happens much later when you test your idea with actual users.
What is more, execution beats a brilliant idea every time. You can have the most revolutionary concept, but if you mess up the launch and can't deliver, it's useless.
@calo Test your idea as soon as possible and be ready to pivot based on market feedback.
My agency started as a full-service shop, but we've constantly evolved by watching user demand. We cut dev to focus just on design, then niched into UI/UX for SaaS, then subscription-only, and now productized services - all guided by real feedback along the way.
