The Perfect Product Ideation Phase

And why most entrepreneurs skip it in favor of going fast

Photo by Olav Ahrens Røtne on Unsplash

Every time you want to start developing, designing, or creating a new product, shop, or building out an idea, you have to ask yourself a few questions. Being honest with yourself for the next 5–10 minutes will help you get started on the right foot and save yourself a lot of money, frustration, and time in the long run.

The Problem

Many entrepreneurs or first-time-idea-havers (should this be a word?) are aware of a problem but don’t really grasp the entire scope of the problem landscape. An example problem I heard in one of my product ideation phases with a customer:

I wanted to download an app to help me be more productive, but the best ones weren’t free

And yes, this might be a valid problem. But if the customer were to build on top of this problem only, the product would probably fail. So let’s look at how I took the customer to defining a product that launched and scaled successfully, ultimately serving thousands of customers in the first year.

Defining the Problem to Solve

When defining the problem, many are trying to describe the problem by offering a solution. “The problem is, most apps aren’t free”. That problem is actually a flipped solution, basically saying “The solution is to provide a free alternative”. The problem isn’t that others charge for their services. The problem, if there even is one, might be “Most customers looking to be more productive are on a tight budget and not willing to spend big money for an app to do that.” Now, this problem is written openly, without suggesting an immediate solution. This phrasing opens up creativity and gives your possible solutions room to breathe. Suddenly, the solution isn’t only about making it free. It is about increasing the willingness of the customers to spend whatever you charge. Whether in the form of fullscreen ads, a donation, or monetizing on the increased efficiency of the customers.

At this stage, most entrepreneurs believe their problem to be defined. But there is more. As you probably read in this post, building a solution to a problem you are not facing yourself isn’t worth your time. As the saying goes: early product investors don’t invest in ideas, they invest in the people. Because, as seen in many startups: Ideas change, but the people don’t. So, to complete your problem definition, answer these three questions:

1. Why has nobody else solved the problem yet?
2. Why are you in the unique spot to solve the problem first?
3. How do you feel the pain of the problem daily?

Don’t worry, you don’t need to note these questions down. You can download my Product Ideation Template for free right here.

The Free Product Ideation Form

The Solution

So once you completed defining your problem, we come to the solution stage. The solution will change over time, and what you define today will probably have very little to do with the final product on launch day or in 5 years. However, it is important to start the solution ideation early on and give your solution room to grow and evolve over time. Don’t force the idea to stay the same.

To get your solution started, try to explain the problem to a six-year-old kid. In very simple terms, with no complex words or technical terms. The simpler you describe the problem, the better you will be able to derive a solution. The problem above, in easy terms:

I want to use my phone to be more productive, without paying money

Your version will probably be very different. And all variations are good. And that’s what makes all entrepreneurs unique and leads to many different solutions for the same problem. Take Lyft and Uber. Or MS Teams and Slack. All different solutions to the same problem.

Now, you have to take the time to brainstorm for solutions. If you are having trouble finding a good solution, try rephrasing your problem. Try challenging your problem, is it as precise and easy as possible? Is it really required, or can it be simplified further? Try this

I want to organise my work for free to get more done in a day

Suddenly, this phrase opens up a whole new market and new possibilities but also makes your problem more vague. But for initial brainstorming, a vague problem can sometimes help find more solutions. Solutions that you can then bring back to a concrete problem later.

For this problem, I see a straightforward solution. Provide your productivity app for free. An app where your users can organize, manage, complete, and prioritize tasks. This will help them be more productive. To fund this project, introduce ads to provide a free challenge while advertising an even more productive ad-free experience for a monthly subscription.

Once you have a defined solution that you are happy with, try to phrase it again so a six-year-old kid could understand it. Let me try that.

I will provide an app for your phone where you can list and tick off all your todos. You have the choice to watch some videos where I get paid or pay a little bit every month to use the app without the videos.

This is defininteyl a defined soltuion. Not the best, but a start. As mentioned, your first solution doesn’t need to be on point. While you are going through my 20-step product launch series you will learn to refine your solution over and over again, until it’s perfect for launch.

Same as the problem, you have three more questions to answer at this point:

1. If you only had 2 weeks to build the solution, how would it work?
2. If you could only build a single feature, what would it be?
3. Who do you need to build the solution? Define your team.

Once you have both the problem and the solution defined, we move on to the Product Evaluation Phase.

To download the free template for this Product Ideation Phase, visit my website at www.matsbauer.com/downloads, and don’t forget to subscribe to the newsletter for exclusive and early bird access to content, downloads, and reads.

See you in the next post.

Yours, Mats