Choosing my next product idea (draft)

Trying to decide on which product idea to focus during the following months.

Posted on Jan 5, 2021 · 3 min read

I do know that ideas are not that important and that the process is more important for what it brings:

  • Building audience
  • Building habits
  • Learning and failing and becoming better prepared

But still, I've got to start somewhere.

I remember a quote from Brendon Burchard saying something like this:

Doubt increases with inaction. Clarity reveals itself in momentum. Growth comes from progress. For all these reasons, BEGIN.

So, this is an open analysis I'm doing regarding some ideas I've been thinking of working on. I do it for myself but any feedback is welcome.

Worries

I think some impostor syndrome and a lot of over thinking and "what ifs" also play a big role in moving forward:

  • What if I will build something nobody needs
  • What if it will take too much time and end giving up to distractions
  • What if I will end up not enjoying it
  • What if I will drop it after investing a lot of time and resources
  • What if I will fail the technical challenges and implementation
  • What if I'm not gonna deliver and fail myself and others
  • What if I'm not the one that should be doing this

And so being paralyzed by hoping to align all the fucking planets in the galaxy before taking real steps forward.

Also another of my fears is getting lost into the details and features ideas and not being able to focus and treat the product as if it were a client project with specific budget and deadlines.

And another one is that I'm not confident in my ideas and I believe I'm trying to build stuff that has to do only with my way of thinking or seeing the world. Maybe this one can be solved by listening more to user feedback and less to my "genius" ego.

Anyways, here we go.

Motivations

Oh, almost forgot to mention some motivations behind my intentions and what I'm expecting:

  • I like to build stuff that people use, something that provides value and service, and enjoy that process
  • I'd like to make some decent profit and maybe be able to drop the software development services I currently offer to my clients, at least balance it to 70% product and 30% client work
  • Bring a positive impact to my life style and in the future maybe use the exceeding profit for other purposes

Aspects to be analyzed

For each idea I'll try to evaluate the following factors:

  • Product/founder fit
  • Value or meaning it provides
  • Time and resources required
  • Profitability
  • Market-ability
  • Existing skills and resources
  • Grouping and specialization

That translates to:

  • Is this something it's good fit for me to build
  • Is it solving some problem, is someone happy cause it exists
  • How much time and money will cost to build it
  • Will I get enough return of investment, how long until that happens
  • How easy will be to sell, how viral it can be, how well I know the users and the problem
  • Is there stuff I already know or have done that can be harnessed
  • If I might end up working on multiple ideas on the long run, should I try to identify a specific group/kind

Summary of ideas

This is the summarized list and below I will put details of the analysis of each idea.

  1. Pictures and videos app/website
  2. Creative community and script/platform
  3. Portfolio and digital cataloging tool
  4. Project based time/budget tracking tool
  5. Build and sell admin panels like AdminLTE
  6. Build and sell React Native boilerplate apps
  7. Build and sell stuff on CodeCanyon
  8. Build simple and useful tool like UptimeRobot
  9. Write Ebooks
  10. Build a game for fun
  11. Build civic or activism tools

Idea 1

TBD

Idea 2

TBD

Conclusion

TBD

By the way: Feel free to steal any idea if it turns on your interest and you feel confident in executing it.

Cover photo by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash and compressed using https://compressor.io/

Also thanks to Robin Roelofsen for the tutorial on How to add estimated reading time to posts.