Ask HN: How to learn about problems of other industries? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to learn about problems of other industries?

43 pointstechsin10117 comments

There are 100s of businesses, I'm only familiar with the one I'm in. For ideas, i need to know about problems that exist then to brainstorm and analyze. But I can't do that if i have no idea what's happening. So how can I learn about more industries. Go To businesses and ask them to let me sit there for no reason?

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Work at a B2B services firm for a while. You'll get exposure to hundreds of businesses over a few years.

I've seen industry outsiders solve a nonexistent problem, or fail to solve an existing problem without realizing it, or solve a non-generalized version of a problem that only applies to one company, or solve a problem excel solves better, or solve a problem which was just a bad (now permanent) process. The list goes on.

However it happens, you greatly increase your chances of providing a valuable piece of software if you have exposure to not just a single business in an industry, but dozens of them.

what roles are best. I worked as dev once for b2b, never got to meet anyone but the kanban board.

Product Manager will let you know what people are requesting but sometimes the requester is a clueless manager.

Working tech support will tell you what real users are having trouble with and sometime they have really great ideas for features.

Being a dev is fine, but it usually means being in a small company. Alternatively, try to meet people in the company who aren't devs. Talk to sales, marketing, production, start small talk with who ever's in the breakroom, etc. Salespeople especially, love to talk :-)

Technical sales, project management, or engineering services. These are often combined. You want something that puts you on the ground with the customer. They'll start asking you for technology/software advice if they like you. It helps if you like traveling.

Alternately, instead of starting a new career, you could ask friends and family for an introduction where they work and just go with your original idea of shadowing people. Most SMB owners I know would be happy to let a software developer analyze their process and brainstorm about useful software. Just give them a perpetual free license for helping you develop it. They might even be interested in helping you bootstrap it. Business owners are often looking for a good investment.

Read their industry trade publications and go to their trade shows, that is the fastest way to understand some of the problems and industry is facing. There will be other problems an industry is facing that don't surface in those areas, the problems being discussed are the easiest ones to sell a solution.

I'll add to this that most business domains have online presence. Find the forums where the people discuss their business problems online and lurk there.

If you decide to approach people to find out about their business problems, they'll take you much more seriously if you already have some knowledge of their industry. They're not going to have confidence that you can solve (or even understand) their problems if you don't know the first thing about what they do.

I'd guess that every industry has its own specialized news sites (something like TechCrunch.com, but for bankers or civil engineers). You could try finding some of these on the web and reading them. You can also learn a lot about different industries by reading a good business paper, like the WSJ or the business section of the NY Times. There are also locally oriented news sources, like Crain’s New York Business.

A lot of industries still have trade magazines.

I've not been consulting for big business for a while, but often if you went into a large organization they'll have a copy of trade magazines related to their field(s) in their reception.

A quick google shows there's still lots of trade magazines in print, so I assume it hasn't all migrated online because of their specialization.

Attend Trade Shows -- I've found them target rich environments of people who are disposed to talking about what they're working. Nothing beats the live in-person conversation. > https://www.thetradeshownetwork.com/tradeshow-calendar

Gale, part of Cengage, probably makes the best reference books that cover various industries in a single volume. This is the fastest way to learn and certainly the most agile. Wish I had a better link, but you should be able to find some via your local library or elsewhere besides Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Global-Industries-Gale/d...

thanks

Work as a consultant. As a management/IT/data/process consultant - it doesn't matter. You'll soon learn to ask the right questions of your customers and figure out different problems they face. It is a nuanced skill but can go a long way in learning how to find and solve real business problems.

Why don't you solve this problem? The problem of learning about other industries. I'm sure other people have the same issue. Maybe create a vlog and document your journey?

i thought about creating a video series on youtube where i go and document businesses day to day life.

other thing was to create website for open source business processes. For example you wanted to start a laundry business, you could just come to website and view best ways to do things. Like check lists and flow charts for all matters: accountability, customer service, repairs, monthly check ups.... this would put individual owned businesses on par with international chain businesses. they are constantly iterating and testing to improve. individually owned businesses are too busy to work on business sometimes. in doing this businesses would expose inefficiencies through their documented process and reveal opportunities for ideas.

The easiest thing to do is rely on friends in certain industries. They'll be able to give you an in depth overview of the field as well as introduce you to other people who work in it.

No direct experience, but I’d try consulting or freelancing first. That’ll get you closer to other people’s problems but while still staying technical.

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