Ask HN: Do ideas really need to solve a "problem"? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do ideas really need to solve a "problem"?

3 pointschany22 comments

Granted the answer should be "Yes" and below are B2C examples.

Being a devils advocate for a minute.

Example 1: Square allows you to purchase a coffee without taking your phone or wallet out. If near a Square register, your Square app connects to it. Tell the cashier "My name is Jack Dorsey, you can find me on your screen." Grab coffee and go.

Opposing view: Before you tell someone this concept, were there A LOT of people complaining about taking out their wallet to buy a coffee?

Example 2: Cliche, but speak the simplistic concept of Twitter.

Opposing view: Were people complaining about not having a portal to announce their thoughts?

Example 3: Henry Ford — 'If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.'

Just want to illustrate a thought I have. Big companies want to innovate, if they don't see a 'need', they probably cannot extrapolate why. Whereas a 'disillusion' startup founder tries it, strikes gold. Want to hear what people think.

On the Twitter point, the idea of Twitter was to enable groups to text message each other. It was a very obvious idea because texting groups was awful on dumbphones and people wanted to do it. What Twitter became was something that wasn't really foreseen, but is a textbook exercise in pivoting as you see what your users are doing.

And as such, that's essentially how ideas solve problems. Very rarely does someone see a problem and come up with a perfect solution first time - an entrepreneur sees how their solution changes the problem space, and pivots with their users needs until the solution fits. And then you have this amazing product that apparently solves something that isn't a "problem" - because the product has changed to eliminate the original problem and enable the user to do something useful.

Nice answer on Twitter.

I totally agree, the first attempt probably won't solve the problem. And many startups actually found a solution first, then try to fit into a problem paradigm, pivot to solve that 'need'.

However Games might be another example, where was there a Problem people were complaining that there need to be an Alien vs Human strategy game? No matter how entertaining, is there study prior to building towards that?

So as a follow-up thought based on your above analysis, should big companies just keep experimenting in-house on a 'non-problem' until reaching a need? - also lends a bit to Innovators Dilemma

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