Finding Your Next Big Idea
3 ways to increase your creativity
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own company, but just don’t have the idea?
Some of tech’s hottest unicorns like Square and Slack were inspired by ideas that happened by chance. These ideas form laterally and feel like moments of luck, almost like lightning in a bottle. How can you capture your own lightning in a bottle and find your next big idea?
You can’t force ideas to come to you, but you can increase your luck by doing these three things.
#1: Do things that you love
Jim McElvey and Jack Dorsey knew that they wanted to build a company together, but they didn’t know what. While they were figuring out what to build, McElvey was doing glass blowing. One day, someone wanted to buy his art, but he lost the sale because he couldn’t find a way to take their American Express card. That experience led to his vision for Square, empowering all businesses to be able to accept payments from a mobile phone.
Instead of spending your time sitting around and willing yourself to think of ideas, be like McElvey and indulge in your hobbies. Spend time with your kids. Try out a new restaurant. As much as it may feel like this time is unproductive, you will be surprised by how much your unrelated activities can tie back to your business ideas. Watching my son play a pickup game of flag football reminded me of how to build effective product development teams. Flipping between Apple TV+, YouTube TV, and Netflix led me to predict that the next trend for video entertainment will be bundling. Enjoy and be present while doing things that you love to keep yourself open to new ideas.
#2: Schedule downtime to let your mind wander
Nintendo started out more than a century ago as a playing card company. In the 1960’s, they realized the limitations of the playing card market and began to explore new product lines - everything from starting a love hotel chain to selling instant rice. One day, the company’s president was walking through the floor of the factory when he noticed a mechanical arm toy that one of the engineers had built for himself. That random stroll led to Nintendo’s pivot into toys and games, and the company is now synonymous with video games.
If you’re on a screen 24/7, your mind is over programmed. You’re constantly processing the information that’s thrust in front of you, rather than thinking for yourself. On the other hand, when you let yourself become relaxed, distracted, or bored, then your mind is free to be creative. This can happen in the shower, while exercising, or on a random stroll. Make time for generating new ideas by blocking off time during your week to get a little bored.
#3: Pay attention when you notice pain points
Slack started out as a game studio called Tiny Speck. While working on the game, the team needed a better way to chat and collaborate, so they built their own tool for that. When the game failed to take off, they shut down the game and launched their internal tool instead. It turned out that lots of other companies shared the same need that Tiny Speck had to chat and collaborate within their internal teams, and Slack ended up as their blockbuster hit.
Not every pain point will immediately turn into an idea, but pay attention to them. What is annoying you? What could work better? How could this be easier? You can jot down observations in a notebook or keep a log. Every month or quarter, read through your list of pain points and see if there are any themes. If a pain point is still sticking in the back of your mind after a few days, then you may be onto something.
Focus is usually a good thing, but when it comes to finding your next idea, the best approach might be to goof off a little bit. When you’re busy doing things you love or getting bored, pay attention to any pain points or lateral insights that you notice. That idea you had in the shower may become your next big idea.
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