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I don't think you're going to find an exact, repeatable, cookie-cutter approach to this, because if there was one, somebody would already be using it (and they probably wouldn't share). But while there isn't necessarily an answer, there are plenty of answers to be had, some of them trivially obvious. So break it down... who do you think has problems? Well, businesses for one. So think about businesses. What do businesses need? Well, they usually need more customers. Or maybe they need to reduce costs. Or both. So think about how the technology you're familiar with could be used to help a business find more customers, or operate more efficiently. Of course doing this in detail is going to be easier if it's a domain where you have personal experience, but if you don't, just come up with an idea, and then go talk to people about it. If you feel really strongly about it, maybe build a prototype to show off. But be careful of spending tons of time building something before you know if anybody wants it (note: I haven't always followed my own advice here. Also, never take advice from me.) Another element is: read books. Lots of books. Preferably books about business (sales, marketing, promotion, operations, organization design, strategy, etc.) This will help give you the understanding needed to link technology with business problems like "find more customers" or "reduce costs". What you read in books will always be somewhat non-specific though, so you have to - again - loop back to "talk to people. Lots of people." If a particular industry interests you, read up on it specifically. Subscribe to the trade journals in that industry, and go to the conferences and trade shows that people in that industry go to. Talk to people there. Read The Four Steps To The Epiphany by Steve Blank. Use LinkedIn to find people to connect with and talk to. Favor having actual conversations with people over doing surveys using SurveyMonkey or the like. If you do enough of all this, at some point, you'll probably come up with a pretty good list of possibilities. Note that while this is pretty simple, it's not easy. People won't return your phone calls or emails, or will agree to meet you and then not show up. You'll come up with what you think is a great idea, then start looking around and find that 375235028372512.7 other companies are already doing something in that space. Or you'll fall in love with one of your ideas too early, spend a ton of time building it, and then find out that that A. nobody wants it AND B. 375235028372512.9 other companies already built something similar. Etc., etc., etc. Don't get discouraged, just keep plugging. Read this essay by pg: www.paulgraham.com/die.html |