How to Come up with 1000 Product Ideas

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or just looking for an idea for a product or service to market in your spare time, coming up with that great idea is the most crucial and challenging task. Here’s a simple way to generate at least 1000 product and/or service ideas.

Let’s begin:

Step 1: Know Thyself — Write Down 10 Things About You

To start things off, write down 10 things about yourself. Are you single? Married? Do you play golf? Are you short? Are you diabetic? Take a moment write down this list of “I am”s. Here’s mine, as an example:

1. I am a man
2. I am a father
3. I am a husband
4. I am a musician
5. I am a lawyer
6. I am a Mets fan
7. I am tall
8. I am a home owner
9. I am a curly-haired person
10. I am mixed ethnically

Step 2: Problemos — Write Down 10 Problems Related to Each Characteristic

Now take each of these characteristics, qualities, hobbies, whatever, and write down 10 problems (or needs) for each. These can be serious or silly, but they need to be actual problems, wants, or needs. Draw from your own experience. Take time to think through actual problems that you’ve had or problems that you’ve observed in other folks fitting this description. For example, what are 10 problems that fathers have?

My list might look something like this:

1. Lack of Time with Kids
2. Lack of Time for Exercise and Rest
3. Financial Stress from Supporting a Family
4. Reduced Time for Career Changes and Side Ventures
5. Lack of Child Rearing Knowledge
6. Decrease in Physical Contact from Wife (who has kids hanging all over her all day)
7. Lack of Time with Friends
8. Risks — Needing Insurance and Protection Against Big Losses, Injury, and Health Crises
9. Need for Father/Child Activity Ideas
10. Lack of Contact/Connection with Children After Divorce

Repeat this exercise until you’ve created a list of 10 problems for each of the 10 characteristics you listed. Now you have 100 problems to solve!

Step 3: Solutions — Write Down 10 Products or Services that Help Solve Each Problem

Now comes the fun (and hard) part. Once you have your list of 100 problems to solve, make a list of 10 possible product or services that would solve each problem, alleviate each need, or make that person’s life better.

For example, let’s say I wanted to address problem #5 above (Lack of Child Rearing Knowledge and Skills), my list might look something like this:

1. An online support forum or Q&A site for dads related to child rearing
2. Research a specific child rearing topic (e.g. discipline) and create a ‘crash course’ for dads (with references to the best books you’ve found)
3. Organize a ‘fathers meetup’ in your town to connect local dads
4. Organize a one-day event for soon-to-be dads (monetizing through sponsors and/or ticket sales) featuring speakers and networking
5. Create and market a ‘daddy boot-camp’ course online (or live)
6. Create a podcast for dads, interviewing experts in the field of child rearing
7. Create a newsletter for dads, highlighting good articles and books on parenting, sharing stories of victories and failures
8. Write a story (or cartoon) that helps illustrate good fathering skills in some way (sell the E-book on Kindle)
9. Consulting large companies on how they can provide better support for fathers in the workplace (classes, activities, paternity leave, etc.)
10. Become a motivational speaker for dads

Since this problem was knowledge-based, all of the ideas were related to educating and supporting fathers. Some problems will lend themselves to services, others to ideas and some to both products and services. Either one is totally fine, just do your best to address the specific problem.

This step will take longer than steps 1 and 2, so I suggest taking on 1–3 problems then taking a break (e.g. go for a walk or run). Let your mind wander on your breaks and then come back to the drawing board fresh. Or, attack a few problems each day until you’ve worked through them all. This is also a great activity for break-time at work.

Do not be afraid of bad or crazy ideas. Do not judge your ideas. Your only goal is to get to 10 for each problem.

At the end of it all you will have 1000 ideas to call your own. Many will be bad/silly or may have been thought of by someone else (sometime that’s a good thing, since it validates the idea). That’s ok! In producing such a large number of ideas you will be left with a few gems worth investigating and just maybe you’ll find one that changes the game.

Conclusion

I hope this helps you if you’re feeling stuck or don’t know where to get started as you launch into a new venture. Ultimately, launching products and services is all about solving problems for a target market. That’s what you’ve done here, perhaps without knowing it.

Here’s a more technical understanding:

Step 1: Identify a Market (e.g. independent musicians)

Step 2: Identify Pain Points and Problems in That Market (e.g. lack of money for recordings)

Step 3: Develop Products and Services to Solve a Problem for That Market (e.g. a crowdfunding website)

Obviously, there are many other steps to take in developing a viable product or service, which many others have dealt with elsewhere. But, I hope this helps you see just how many possibilities there are out there for you. Please leave a comment with thoughts and share some ideas!