Where do the ideas come from?

This article contains all the methods I know for today to search (or "channels" for the appearance) of product ideas. In the form of a more or less ordered list.

The list will be useful to everyone involved in the creation of new features, new products - product managers, startups and other people of creative professions.



Perhaps you have forgotten or did not know about any of these methods, and reading the article will help you overcome another gag. Or it will encourage me to share some of my own approach that I missed. Or even provoke indignation, and you want to tell how everything is "really" - feel free to supplement and criticize.

Obviously, ideas in themselves do not obey any principles and classifications, they simply appear. Usually in people's heads. But roughly speaking what drives ideas to emerge, from what soil they grow, is very possible and necessary.

The question of the quality and value of ideas is beyond the scope of this article. It tells only where they come from.

Intro


In the IT field today it is customary to consider ideas in the concept of a space of problems and a space of solutions ( another example ).



Not the fact that this is an optimal coordinate system (for example, in my opinion, many computer games do not solve any specific problem, but simply entertain). But it is popular, it works, and so far we will not dispute it.

1. The space of problems


Suppose you are facing a goal or task. It can be blurry and general (“I want a mobile application”), or it can be specific (“you need to make a website with halal recipes”).

To achieve a specific result (a specific product), you can first proceed from the problems you want to solve. Many authors even consider this the only right method of finding ideas for new products and features.

Here are some ways to find problems.

1.1 Ask questions



You can stumble upon an important unsolved problem simply by talking with potential customers, users, customers (for whom do you want to make the application? What kind of people do you want to see on your site with halal recipes?).

There are many different approaches, chips for conducting interviews and asking questions ( for example , an overview of methods ). This is generally a different story. But there is only one sense - to clarify the problems of people in an explicit form during communication with these same people.

This method of finding problems is extremely important for understanding your audience, but do not expect brilliant product ideas on a silver platter.

Henry Ford is credited with the phrase “If I asked my clients what they needed, they would all answer - a faster horse!” This would prompt a nearby person to search for ways to accelerate the horse, while Ford saw here an opportunity and came to a number of new ideas, already in the space of solutions.

1.2 Observe

The most banal and judging by the abundance of ugly and stupid products around us - the most underestimated way.

Many everyday examples of deaf-blindness of product creators can be seen in Norman's Design of Familiar Things book .

It’s even embarrassing for adults to write that they need to carefully monitor their users (real and potential), carefully analyze their observations, and draw conclusions.



It is not so important how to specifically analyze how to draw conclusions. It's important to just do it. Seriously and meaningfully, not for show.

An important difference between this method and asking questions is that you need to minimize interaction with those you are watching. Otherwise, the effect “they take me off” can ruin everything, you will not see the real picture.

But the ultimate goal is to discover the real problems of real people, and not to substantiate, with prejudiced observation, their ingenious, but often useless ideas.

1.3 Own problems



For many well-known projects, it was an attempt to solve their own problems that served as the starting point for a successful journey.

The logic is simple - if this is really your pain, you should understand its nature and be able to evaluate the success of a solution like no other. Having found a solution that you are completely satisfied with and you are willing to pay for, you greatly increase the likelihood that this misfortune will be needed by your comrades.

Observation, sensitivity, the habit of constantly recognizing one’s reactions and motivation behind decisions and actions, the ability to notice the imperfections of the world, dig to the bottom and critically look at things help us to find our own problems.

The main thing here is not to fall into the trap of false, contrived and sucked from the finger problems.

If you do not have friends and personal life, this is not a reason to create another social network (on the grounds that VKontakte or Facebook did not help you solve these problems).

It helps to ask yourself critical questions and try to answer as honestly and comprehensively as possible. An investor, a boss can be poured into the ears, but it’s dangerous to deceive yourself.

Why do I need a mobile application? What do I (or my customer, manager) want to achieve with the next culinary site? And what does not suit me in the existing ones? Hand on heart, are these flaws really important? Why? How much am I willing to pay for a new solution? Etc.

1.4 Create a problem



Do you doubt the statement that every time after eating in your mouth acid-base balance is disturbed? Have you ever been annoyed by sidewalks spat on chewing gum a little less than completely?

I will dwell on this, because arrogance and skill in creating the problems of modern marketers have reached such heights that for many they have long turned into another worldwide conspiracy ( http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Logo and further on the links).

But there is a way. You can try to use it in good intentions. For example, turning food staleness into a serious problem and attracting a new target audience - healthy lifestyle advocates to the site. And you will receive an additional profit, and there will be less people eating garbage.

2. The space of decisions


Here we’ll try to put into shelves where ideas about final products and features come from without reference to problems.

2.1 The intuitive mystic way

This is when he visits enlightenment, grace comes down, an inner voice says, an unexpected solution to some long-tormented problem comes to mind, some interesting idea, thought, concept.



There is a suspicion that this is how truly great and big ideas are born. It is hard to imagine how many well-known inventions and discoveries follow from previous knowledge. Often one small completely illogical step is missing (there are plenty of examples in science: the theory of relativity and other “quantum mechanics”).

A similar source of ideas is usually revealed to those who have long and seriously cooked in a certain topic, who have already developed intuition and a sense of what is happening in its subject area.

This is not a method from the series “Let's think of something and for inspiration we will go into a trance or take some substance”. This does not work.

There are a lot of speculation and legends around this channel for the emergence of ideas (Newton’s apple, Mendeleev’s table, and even books whose idea came in a dream ), but the universe obviously doesn’t care much.

2.2 Random ideas or by-products

This method is difficult to clearly separate from the previous one due to its equally random and unpredictable nature. And in order not to blink it, one must also be attentive and sensitive to the products of one's labor.



Many commercially successful ideas came about by chance, in the sense that they were not planned in advance or predicted.

The point of applying this approach is to be always prepared as a pioneer that everything you do can turn to you on a completely different side. And this side is not always an ass.

There are plenty of examples: tweeter , Punto Switcher (proof in an interview with the creator ), penicillin and many, many others .

2.3 Methodical search for solutions or scientific path

We are talking about various approaches to the systematization of creative search (TRIZ and the like).



Particularly curious have long been in the subject and at least studied the Wikipedia article . I will list some of the most popular techniques in real life.

Brainstorm

Not every bunch of people chatting on a given topic is a brainstorm that can be of use. Brainstorming has a specific pattern .

The bottom line is to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations: first we generate ideas on a given topic, including including the ideas of a partner as starting points for our own, any criticism is forbidden, and only then we analyze, criticize and sift the ideas.

The “what if?” Method

Almost all people use this method in one way or another in their work, life and even their personal lives. Someone was not even too lazy and formulated his version in the form of a formal SCAMPER technique . They would have patented a triple mouse click ...

The meaning comes down to trying to make random or intentional changes to separate parts of an idea, concept or product, and see if something good comes out of it:

  • But what if you swap the header and basement of the site with recipes?
  • But what if halal recipes are replaced with kosher ones?
  • But what if you remove the texts from the recipes?
  • And what if, add audio recipes to the video?

And so on, only more strictly and preferably according to a predetermined list of variations. So that in a fit of inspiration, do not forget to go through all the points.

Morphological analysis

A method invented and successfully used by a Swiss astronomer in business. It looks rather sophisticated, but for our worldly affairs it can be simplified to the following simple scheme.

We take all the basic properties of an existing product (or class of products), bring them to a table. Add additional new properties to taste. Then we sort through all possible combinations in an attempt to find a fresh interesting one.

For example, take the popular iOS game Clash of Clans. What properties can be distinguished from similar products? The setting of the game (Vikings, knights, military base, fantastic civilizations etc.), monetization model (free-to-play, subscription, paid application, ..), graphics (3D, rendered 3D sprites, cartoonish, photorealistic, ...) gameplay and so on.

Each property and a set of its values ​​can be selected from existing applications on the market and add your own.

We get some kind of table (by and large multidimensional). According to this table, you can scatter competitors and get a visual map of "military operations".

And also to train a train of new ideas in the spirit of “what if you make Clash of clans in a setting of the Third Reich with photorealistic graphics and a subscription model? ..”

The more you break down the properties, the search process will be more difficult and tedious, but there will be more chances to find something- it's worth it.

2.4. Competitive analysis


A method known at all times and playing in my opinion an extremely important role in the progress of mankind. It has two flavors.

Lick

And also to pioneer, slam, clone, steal, adopt, borrow ...



This is when we take a successful find of a competitor and stupidly copy, without trying to get deep into the logic and motivation that were behind this or that decision. Cheap, cheerful and often justified and effective.

China and the USSR achieved particular success in this approach (for example, the story of the creation of the Tu-4 bomber , where even ashtrays were copied , was funny , although it was forbidden for our pilots to smoke).

If you are not the USSR and not China, exploiting only this way, you, for a number of obvious reasons, run the risk of forever remaining in the role of catching up and sooner or later flying out of the market.

To develop

We look at successful features and products of competitors, we understand the background and probable reasons for their success and popularity, we identify key weaknesses and weaknesses.



We pass it all through ourselves, through our capabilities, plans, resources and ambitions. We create a product or feature similar to a competitor, but better.

If you wish, you can summarize Google, Facebook and thousands of other well-known companies that have become leaders in their market, not being the first ones, if you wish. But offering the best product.

Of course, they did not become leaders because they analyzed competitors and only tried to improve their decisions. And not even because of the fact that they offered the best.

But we are here classifying the methods of searching for product ideas, and not doing business analysis.

2.5 Analogies

This is when ideas, solutions, patterns already known and tested in one area are transferred to another.



The most superficial example is the direct transfer of processes from offline to online. People in real life, alas, are constantly fighting. And in the gaming industry, ever new shooters and strategies about the war are constantly appearing.

A little deeper is the metaphor of the desktop (as well as files, folders, baskets, etc.), which for many years to come set the vector for the development of computer interfaces. The basis of this idea was obviously not invented from scratch.

Many inventions and technical ideas were taken from nature ( link for the curious ).

However, the similarity of principles and patterns from completely different areas of life is a separate interesting topic for the flame, we are now more interested in the applied aspect.

It lies in the fact that by looking into other areas of human activity (in other industries, other countries, other companies, other cultures, other markets, other eras), you can find many interesting solutions for your tasks.



Here is such a classification. The benefit from it is rather educational and developmental than applied. But this is more than sufficient reason for the article in our young industry. Moreover, attempts to systematize and analyze product management processes are still very rare.

I count on your comments, criticism and additions, dear colleagues, like-minded people and just curious readers.

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