The Idea Phase

“A young woman in a headscarf looking up with her hand under hair chin” by Tachina Lee on Unsplash

If you want to be an entrepreneur, start your own company or begin a side hustle you either have an idea or you’re looking for one. Today, we will take a look at the phase right before you begin your start up journey: The Idea Phase.

The idea phase involves generating and validating your business idea. I will walk you through a process you can use during this phase as you get and validate your business idea, from problem to solution. Yes, problem to solution, not the other way around. Why? It is simple, your business needs to be able to adapt and change over time, if the idea behind your business is based solely on your solution, adapting with the times will be difficult.

Finding and Validating that Business Idea

Step 1: Look for a problem
If you already have a problem in mind, skip to step 2.

A problem or need can be used to identify a possible gap in the market. There are several ways to identify a problem faced within your society. The two means I found are:

1. Through personal experience and real life observation
2. Through research into a preferred sector/target market/etc.

In these areas you should be able to identify a list of at least 5 possible problems or needs.

Step 2: Validate that the problem exists

Identify the affected market segment/society/demographic and perform market research.

Ensure that you: ask questions, make further observations and carry out some research (questionnaires, read newspapers, watch the news, read research articles and so on). Ask your friends and family about the problem area you have noticed, and most importantly ask people you don’t know. Strangers have no reason to spare your feelings, therefore they will give you the most honest feedback.

Don’t lie to yourself. Don’t ignore research that goes against your premise and don’t ask leading questions. If you find contradictory information, high five the person next to you and pivot (pick another idea from your initial list). Finding out that your potential business idea is not viable before putting any money or effort into it, is something worth celebrating. So pivot and look for something more worth your time.

Step 3: Do people want or need the problem solved?

Don’t skip this step, ever. There may be a problem or need but that does not mean people need or want for it to be solved. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at a few things, that you might have forgotten to take into account:

1. Habit

A habit can be defined as an activity or action one performs regularly, without much thought, which is often hard to stop or give up.

What you need to remember is you cannot change people’s habits.

If the problem you want to address is linked to a habit, attempting to base your business on solving this problem, is not always recommended. If I happen to be an emotional shopper (all extreme moods or emotions trigger a shopping spree) then solving the problem of poor financial management might not be viable. As this issue is rooted in habit, I would have to decide on my own if it is something I want to change, all the financial management applications/websites/articles would not help me without my having helped myself first.

However, habit is a very useful concept in terms of marketing and user engagement (we will look at this in a later post).

2. Embarrassment

If the problem is embarrassing or can lead to any scandal once exposed, trying to solve it will not work well for you or your potential business.

Food for thought: restaurants have rodent and pest problems, but do you see anyone openly delivering mouse traps to their premises?

Take a step back and think, will trying to solve this problem cause too much embarrassment for the people experiencing the issue, and if so, can you mitigate it. If you cannot mitigate the embarrassment or scandal factor, pivot.

3. Society & Culture

Look closely at the society where you have identified a problem, and its culture. Is the problem a real problem or a by-product of their culture. In conservative societies you will find it difficult to find secular music. This may be a problem for a few members of this society but it is a by-product of the culture held by the majority.

Step 4: Be honest, are you making any assumptions?

You are most probably basing the problem you have chosen on a few assumptions. If you think that you have not, carry out an evaluation anyway.

This is how I would recommend evaluating your assumptions:

1. Make a list of all possible assumptions (things you have not verified as fact)
2. Choose the assumption (or set of assumptions) that if wrong will disprove the existence your problem. If they are several, rank them according to their importance,
3. Take each major assumption and carry out some research. Take the outcome of your research and use it to validate whether or not this assumption is true or not. If not, take a deep breath, let out a sigh of relief and pivot.

Step 5: Create a list of possible solutions

Exactly that; make a list of all possible solutions. However before we continue, let me take a moment to clarify a common misconception: a solution and how you will execute it (its medium) are not the same thing.

For example, the solution to the littering problem may be to teach people how to properly handle their garbage. The mediums for this solution may be a mobile application, a website, handing out pamphlets, holding conferences and so on.

There we have it, the first half of the idea phase, the problem. As this post is already long enough, we will continue in the next post with validating and evaluating your solution and its medium(part 2: the solution).