The basic idea is that you use existing products to find validated ideas and improve upon the product itself or a certain feature set.
The sources I'm covering down below give you data on demand, monetization, and execution:
- Demand: what products top a market?
- Monetization: what are customers willing to pay?
- Execution: how are products rated? What are pains and gains for customers?
Let's look at some sources you can use to find your next opportunity.
- József Huszkó created Validated Ideas and Validates Ideas 2.0. These contain data on Android apps and, respectively, iOS Apps, Chrome Extensions, and Web Apps.
- For mobile apps, you can also simply look at the respective app store charts. Or use commercial services like App Annie, if you are willing to pay the price.
- MicroAcquire recently acquired Product Explorer, which includes data on products launched on Product Hunt, Hacker News, and Indie Hackers, as well as extensions for Chrome, Shopify, and WordPress.
- Scan marketplaces like MicroAcquire, BuyMySideProject, or Flippa. Or actually buy another project as a starting point.
- My own product, Crowdfunded, gives you data on crowdfunding campaigns to help you find successful product categories, combined with data on campaign performance. So does TheCrowdDataCenter.
- And finally, Capterra gives you data on all kind of software products, including quantitative ratings and qualitative user feedback.
And now the question you have to find an answer for is: can you do better?
This post is based on Basic Problem issue #21.
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