Find A Small Problem And Build A Simple Solution. | Hacker News Reader

Find A Small Problem And Build A Simple Solution.

jcamarena.com

68 pointsj_camarena22 comments

This may sound naive but has anyone got any advice or links to advice on the best way to find real problems to solve, big or small. Preferably small, though because with the big ones its often harder to tell whether they are something that people really want. I'm looking for a way of finding the kinds of things where its relatively easy to tell whether they have a good chance of making some money right now. Its a tall order,I know but you never know what people know until you ask.

"The Best of edw519", http://edweissman.com/53640595

"How do I find business problems to solve" is answered a few times over, from different angles, in Ed's comments collected there. I'm not going to tell you which answers exactly, because you should probably read the whole thing.

Rob Walling (http://www.softwarebyrob.com/) has a book called 'Start Small, Stay Small' that sounds like what you are looking for. He talks about finding a problem to solve, and has lots of practical tips and advice on how to determine if there is a market for the solution.

I think it's best to tackle a small problem in a big space. Like helping people track their weight, which is small in scope, but the number of people who need to lose weight is gigantic. That way, you can gradually increase in scope as you gain more traction, instead of being limited.

Find a big problem, identify a basis for its vector space, and build that basis.

My opinion is that all "small problems with simple solutions" that have become successful were actually cases of big problems masquerading as small ones.

So true.

The problem i see is that people limit them selves saying "to do X first i need W and i don't have W".

You need to start with anything, NOW. No excuses. NOW... then you will find a bunch of new "problems" to solve.

You are in a "blind spot" until the ball starts rolling.

>You need to start with anything, NOW. No excuses. //

So I've got a problem and an outline solution. I just need R&D capital and a few months in a workshop to create a prototype, get a patent and then take that looking for investments ...

How do I start "NOW" with what I have, no money, no time, no workshop.

Enthusiasm doesn't solve every problem.

Well; those are excuses from my point of view.

You can save money and sure you can invest less time on hackernews and more in your ptoject.

If you can't do anything of that for what you have in mind try to go for something smaller but always thinking in the long-pitch.

I'm just saying ..

I can't save money, really I can't.

Time I can probably manage a little of, but then I use HN for relaxation when I'm tired so it's not really productive time that I'm using up. The project is nothing without capital and a workshop; just dead.

Sure there's other things to do but then I'm giving up on the project and that would be falling to the point you attacked that to do X [this project] I need Y and Z.

I guess,finding a problem to solve is in itself sort of a talent.

That could be true but I think that very few people really have that talent. Most people have only one or two good ideas and those come from observing something in a domain that they are in. That's why pg gives the advice to work on something you know about because no doubt he has observed the relative success rate of people who work on things inside and outside of their domains. I think there may be a few people who do have the talent to find problems outside of their immediate domain but I also think that like any 'talent' its probably something you could learn and develop by observing those people, how they think, what they do etc.

True and finding a very important makes it more special.

This might be a great article and I wouldn't even know it. I can't get past the first few sentences because it is thoroughly riddled with typos, missing capitalizations, and other careless errors that would've been fixed if this post wasn't written free-thought and was re-read before publishing.

Try presenting yourself professionally online. Often times what you say is just as important as how you say it.

Thanks for the feedback :)!... I'm still reading and fixing typos .. but i was finishing the Spanish version of my article first.

Also, my English is not pretty good because is not my primary language.

I apologize that that came off as rude. Your English is a lot better than my Spanish.

no problem, i already fixed some of the typos :).

I’ts true?. Do i need to diversify my startup? Or its a better idea to put all the eggs in one basket?.

Should be (or at least a better version, not promising it's perfect):

Is it true? Do I need to diversify my startup? Or is it a better idea to put all my eggs in one basket?

(Feel free to copy and paste if you can't tell what I did different.)

best of luck

thanks

No problem. But you missed a detail: You still have a period after a question mark at the end of that paragraph. The period should be removed.

Take care.

La versión en español del articulo esta aqui // The Spanish version of the article is here:

http://jcamarena.com/espanol/encuentra-un-pequeno-problema-y...

This hit home for me. Previously we had identified a problem, but instead of just getting out there and getting started with the quickest working solution, we spent ages building a fully comprehensive service that did it all and more. The outcome: we wasted resources building things we didnt need and werent used, while our competitors sailed off into the sunset.

This happens so often with early start-ups, including my own.

I wish someone had told me; Build something that provides an basic minimum quantum of utility. Release it immediately. Iterate.

Or maybe they did tell me, but I wasn't listening.

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