How Do You Find New Problems to Solve or Ideas for Products To Work On?

[sotu25]

What is your thought sequence, particuarlly in a new venture that you're thinking about or have already started. Do cool things just randomly pop in your head after whatever things you do through life? As a follow-up, how do you actually validate whether or not you will actually move forward with it (market opportunity, personal problem, growth potential, ease/challenge of problem, customer validation)?

[jtheory]

There are tricks to get more of any kind of idea, like keeping a notebook with you and jotting down suggestions to yourself during the day, then doing triage and record the best ones at the end of the day. Once you get into the habit of looking for ideas, you'll start to see them everywhere. Most will have fatal problems (and practice also makes you better at seeing these quickly), but some won't.

The next step is to break out of your personal routine and small circle of problems. If you're only building ideas based of your own life, and your life is generally pretty comfortable, you'll only be solving problems that are relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things. So get out of your own neighborhood and immediate circle of friends, and learn how to talk to people everywhere. Everyone has problems (and ideas on how they should be solved).

For validation: you definitely need to put in the time talking with the people who you imagine most need what you're building. People have habits, and solutions of some kind already in place for any problem -- you need to give them a solution that better enough that they'll change their habits for it. Find out in detail what they already do before you try to "fix" it.

[vyrotek]

If you're only building ideas based of your own life, and your life is generally pretty comfortable, you'll only be solving problems that are relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

There's so much truth in this. This combined with the other idea that you should 'scratch your own itch' can result in bit of frustration. Many (myself included) fall into this trap and find ourselves trying to dig deep to find problems we can solve. Sometimes we fool ourselves in thinking we have problems that we really don't have. Then you end up with meaningless solutions or even worse, solutions looking for a problem.

[siavosh]

After a handful of side projects that never got the traction I was hoping for, I came upon Bret Victor's recent CUSEC talk on principle based inventing.

Unless you're lucky enough to stumble on an idea that has instant traction, any path to success is going to be hard, with lots of periods of self/market-doubt, and lots of opportunities to quit. I think the only way to get through those times is pursuing an idea that stems from a deep principle you believe in. This is currently what I'm looking for: identifying my humanistic principles, and seeing what ideas are natural conclusions from it. No more random market based ideas.

[mdda]

Link to CUSEC talk : http://vimeo.com/36579366

[Chizuka]

Wow. Amazing talk.

[sotu25]

Agreed.

[AznHisoka]

what side projects have u launched?

[nrmn]

I keep a notebook on my night table with a pen to catalog my ideas as they popup. My ideas usually come as the result of me reflecting on the past day and letting my mind wander. I write everything down, even if it seems highly unlikely to ever come to fruition. I believe this is important as further ideas can be derived that are slightly more 'approachable'. I try my best not to force this process and let it occur organically. The notes are written as a stream-of-consciousness, I sketch and write to my hearts content hoping to capture the idea envisioned in my minds eye.

Validation: I don't validate my ideas as much as I should, this is a personal failing but its something I am working on. I do perform market research on each product and consider the challenges of getting a MVP out to consumers. I recently watched a talk by DHH at Startup School '08[1] which gave me a personal epiphany, sadly this should have been painfully obvious, that you can still do well aiming to satisfy the niche markets, chances are you will not be making the next facebook. While it is nice to dream of being the next big thing, I personally would be ecstatic to have a handful of people paying 5$ a month for a product that solved their problem.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CDXJ6bMkMY

[joshp1]

I mainly work as a janitor so I think all day. Ideas come into my head constitly. The only problem was I would forget the the time I got home. So I started emailing my facebook account everytime I get a idea. Know the problem I have is I got alot of projects to work on. The good thing is most sound good in my head, but when I get started on them they suck so I ether drop them or add the good parts to other projects

[ChrisNorstrom]

They come to me every few days. Ideas for inventions, ideas for startups, ideas for websites, ideas for designs. It's too much.

As soon as I start working on one, another comes to me. So it's kind of like torture. Ideas just keep coming and I find it hard to settle down and commit myself to one. I wish I had a whole bunch of money and just paid people to make them all. But it doesn't work that way.

I think it's my negativity and critisism. When I see something that's already been made, I look for its flaw. I almost always find something wrong or imperfect with it. So then I ask myself why it feels wrong, how it can be made better or different, and from that another idea and invention is born. Sometimes so different from its origin that it becomes a whole new different product or service. I mix and match different little fixes together and eventually they create a whole new product.

Other times, idea formation is just subconscious. It happens without thinking. It cooks in the back of your mind and when it's done it gets pushed towards your consciousness and you realize you have a "good idea". Where it came from, you don't know.

[anujkk]

As soon as I start working on one, another comes to me. So it's kind of like torture. Ideas just keep coming and I find it hard to settle down and commit myself to one. I wish I had a whole bunch of money and just paid people to make them all. But it doesn't work that way.

I can relate to that. I am having more than a dozen very good ideas(at least I think so). They keep coming and try to take my focus away from my current project.

[AznHisoka]

what are some of those ideas u can share?

[prawn]

I really identify with those first two paragraphs. Leaves me with a huge list of ideas and an incredulous reaction when someone talks about not being able to come up with an idea. I only wish I had just one on which to concentrate.

[sritch]

The way I do it is two things. The first and most obvious (as most state) is to just live your life normally, and think about the things you are doing or observing. Why am I doing it this way? Is this the best way? X is so boring/tedious, surely there is a better way.

The second way is to read - not just articles or HN, but novels or non-fiction are another source for me. It functions in the same way as the first: chances are the main character or at parts in the story you will notice things that seem impractical. I noticed this while reading case studies at school, the authors usually explicitly point out that "this industry was fragmented" or so forth.

[paraschopra]

I wrote about this in my blog:

* How to find ideas that make money: http://paraschopra.com/blog/entrepreneurship/how-to-find-sta...

* How to validate your startup idea: http://paraschopra.com/blog/entrepreneurship/validate-startu...

I am a big believer of market-based approach of doing startups. So, instead of trying to come up with a startup idea out of the blue, why don't you identify a market or an opportunity and then see what problems can be solved.

[wisco_kid]

Great question. I think the big thing is that you have to get exposed to different things. If you don't have your own itch that could be scratched for profit, then you need to find somebody else's. Some of the posters mentioned learning about different domains and niches; to me that's the key. If you are a problem solver with an entrepreneurial streak, you will find itches that need to get scratched just from talking to people about what they do.

The key is: how do you get exposed to new domains? I'm sure most business managers/owners could name 3 or 4 things they wish they could make better. However starting that conversation with them is difficult.

My wife does some direct sales stuff (Pampered Chef, Lia Sophia) and the key concept with their sales training is: get on the damn phone! Make 3 calls a night, that's it and your business will grow.

Idea generation is the same thing. Just think if you could have 3 conversations a day (heck, even 1 conversation a day) with people about what they do during the day. I bet you'd have multiple actionable ideas in a week.

It sounds easy and trivial, but it isn't. I know this works but I haven't done it yet. I'm not brave enough, charismatic enough, too big of a p*y to just start up conversations with people, at least so far... But I think if you go to the core of most business startups, that didn't start with a guy/girl solving her own problem, you'll find that most of them started by putting themselves out there.

[sotu25]

Great points...I especially like "I'm sure most business managers/owners could name 3 or 4 things they wish they could make better. However starting that conversation with them is difficult."

[Detrus]

Vision and principles is a good method. This is a great talk about that https://vimeo.com/36579366

Covers the inventions at Xerox PARC, how they were motivated by removing modes. Then how Brett Victor of Kill Math http://worrydream.com/KillMath/ fame comes up with his ideas. They all stem from a single unifying principle.

First world problems though and no concern with markets and customer validation.

[markshead]

Regarding your follow-up question, here are a few things I ask myself before moving forward with a new idea:

1. Can I get the expertise/experience to actually create this? I may have the technical expertise to do it, but if I don't have the domain experience I may produce something that makes perfect sense to everyone except someone who actually needs the product. Not having the experience myself is fine, but I need a plan for how I'm going to get it or someone who can provide it.

2. How would I market this? Having a good idea is one thing, but getting it in the hands of people who would actually use it is another. For me this will often mean partnering with someone who is already working with the customers I want to reach.

3. What is the probability of success and what is the potential payback? It is easy to get so enamored with a problem that you stop to think about whether it really makes business sense or not. A project has a 0.1% chance of making $1,000,000, but a 99.9% of losing money is going to be less attractive (from a financial standpoint) than project that has a 25% chance of making $100,000.

[handzhiev]

One of the ways is to go out of your niche. Out of the high tech stuff, and see what "ordinary" people with uncool professions need. Other option is to transfer ideas from one niche to another - it may look odd and weird at first but then lots of ideas will pop up.

I even do get some of my ideas from TV. From the news. From seeing a problem or someone's business model that can be transferred elsewhere.

[BryanB55]

I did this and I can see how "getting out of your niche" works but be careful that you know who your customers will be. I went into working with the real estate industry, particularly realtors. I now find myself really wanting to get into high tech because my personality clashes with a lot of my customers. For one, they are incredibly un-tech savy and 80% of them use some outdated windows computer with Internet Explorer 6 or something prehistoric.

I had to spend 30 minutes the other day explaining to someone how to download a picture and where it gets saved on her computer.

They also like to have meetings and conference calls on things that can be resolved with a 2 sentence email. There are also some things I'd like to be able to do like build relationships with my customers through social media and although many of them do use it, it's just not the same as interacting with a younger or more tech savy demographic.

So in the end, for my next business, I'm going to look towards finding a market where my customers are better suited with my personality and skills. I think it will not only be more enjoyable for me but also allow me to fully utilize what I am good at.

[greenyoda]

On the other hand, if you invest some effort to get more comfortable working with people like these, you could have access to a market that may have fewer competitors, since many tech-oriented people might have the same obstacles you did. And real estate agents may have real money to spend on a product that would make it easier for them to earn their commissions -- you could get a lot more money on a single sale than you could from selling iPhone apps to random people for $4.99 a piece.

[BryanB55]

Less competitors... Yes, quite possibly. Do real estate agents have real money to spend on product to make their life easier? Sure. Of course they do, but so do other people. Your point about $4.99 iphone apps, I'm not sure what that has to do with anything...

I also never said I wasn't comfortable working with people like this it's just that I wouldn't if I had a choice and knew what I know now. I do not agree with a lot of their work principles and I appreciate different things than they do.

For me, I'm still young and have the time to experiment in different industries it's not about jumping into the first market that has the least competitors, its about finding something I enjoy doing and am passionate about. I notice that is when I tend to do my best work.

I think finding a job or industry is like dating. You have a relationship with your customers and if they are 2 or 3 times your age and share no common interests, it can make for a not so great relationship.

[sotu25]

Thanks for your help. Well how do you get out of that niche? Using the below comment as example, seems like it can be a bit risky not having domain expertise entering something new, right? I guess it can help to have a partner who know's the niche, just wondering how you can avoid choosing the real estate industry to find out the grass isn't that green.

[wslh]

I wrote a brief article about a way to select an idea from an idea pool assuming that you produced enough ideas. It's at http://blog.databigbang.com/ideas-and-execution-magic-chart/

Now, how do you find new problems? The first rule is (obviously) there are not rules. But you can improve your heuristics like using serendipity or strong market analysis.

Problems are everywhere, so this are the kind of questions I ask myself searching for opportunities:

- Integration: Does technology X connects with technology Y in a seamless way? What can I do achieve integration. A subset of the (X,Y) is {('.net', 'java'), ('web', 'desktop'), ('e-mail', 'crm'), ('e-mail attachments', 'dropbox'), ('google analytics', 'excel'), ('gdata', 'odata'), ('mobile', 'desktop'), ('thunderbird', 'outlook'), ('mobile phone', 'asterisk')} You can add a relation R, like how can I R=migrate from 'thunderbird' to 'outlook' ?

- Extending Features: Can I open different gmail/twitter/etc accounts in different browser tabs? Does Salesforce has all the features needed? Does Kindle export notes?

- Development libraries: There are easy to use libraries to do X in the technology Y?

- Changing industries: Does industry X have a problem that was already solved in industry Y?

- Futurism: What we will need in one year? and in ten years? For example, do I need a voice based web browsing to use while I am doing other things? (like Siri does with e-mail). How I can integrate the information from a lot of sources (G+, Twitter, Facebook, CRMs, etc). Will the torrent protocol will be the future for streaming? in that case how can I add dynamic advertisement to torrent streaming? new games for toddlers (like the AI toy), and Turing test for toddlers?

[AlexCoventry]

I'm still trying to figure out the answers to these questions. I get ideas about anything I pay enough attention to. Mostly this has happened in an academic context, so far. I had an idea that I intend to pursue in a startup-ish way, based on a way to modify to the bitcoin protocol to, roughly speaking, allow people to purchase time on the computational resources devoted to the blockchain lottery[1]. I got the idea when reading a thread on bitcointalk.org about a blockchain dedicated to cracking RSA keys. I went and had a shower shortly afterwards, and at some point during that suddenly it was clear to me how you could arrange such a blockchain in a secure way. It took a few months more thinking in my spare time to make the idea flexible enough to be useful, which sounds laborious, but was actually tremendous fun.

I'm still trying to figure out ways to assess the marketability of the idea. While asking people about the technical feasibility of the idea, I got some useful feedback on how it needs to be improved[2], but I'm still don't have a clear idea about how to reach potential customers[3]. My current plan is to survey people using GPUs for approximately embarassingly parallel Monte Carlo inference and optimization, because the computational constraints in my framework bear some resemblance to those of GPU programs, and I think GPU developers could migrate fairly easily.

[1] https://docs.googlye.com/open?id=0B3qaT-ZL6aeKMWFhNmIwOGYtNW...

[2] E.g., https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64421.msg757930#msg7...

[3] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3609991

[ifewalter]

To be honest. The best ideas come when you are not even trying hard at it. Like walking down the street, overhearing an argument, or my personal favourite - in the shower. But no matter what just keep a notebook.if that is too big, use the note pad on your phone. so that when even the smallest idea pops in your head (which you think is cool) write it down. It is not enough to just write it down either, don't stop mulling over it, for about an hour or so. (Because from a zen advice, if you go chasing your thoughts, you get too obsessed and lose opportunity for new and greater ones.) Consider a few things like possibility, implementation, improvement etc. After a while (say a day or two) read over your notes, if you still like the ideas, you just might have yourself a viable project.

[hiphophippo]

True story, I have a whiteboard in my shower ha.

[anujkk]

These are the keywords - See, Observe, Understand, Analyze. Finding news ideas or problems to solve is a way of thinking that anyone can learn. For me, it is now a part of my nature. I always try to be curious to know about things around me - much like a child. This world is not perfect and it will never be. There will always be room for improvement. I always make a conscious effort to think about what's missing and how can I improve anything.

Also, keep sharpening your axe by learning new skills whether it is technology, art, science, management, marketing or anything else. The more you know, more you will be able to find and notice brilliant ideas that will pass through you.

[hiphophippo]

Trying to force yourself to think of a solution to a problem your having almost always ends up disastrous, from my personal experience. The ideas might be good but I've never personally found a brilliant solution taking these methods. When an idea is sporadic and completely natural it encompasses the idea of simplicity and originality and these two ideas are an excellent platform to build products or solutions off of. I have had so many forced ideas that I regret moving forward with a few months down the road because the original idea wasn't a strong enough base to start from.

[Uglyfruit]

1) The starting point is always the observation of anomalies in an existing system or pattern. 2) You reason on those anomalies in your head, alone. 3) You come up with a possible response, alone. 4) You visualize in your head how this response would actually works. This should be practiced until you see it working smoothly from beginning to end. You do this alone. 5) Finally you set to work in order to bring this response into our physical world. Either alone or in a group-work

[jseliger]

Awareness, which may be one step above "Schlep Blindness:" http://paulgraham.com/schlep.html . Cultivate it.

In addition, read some and try to become aware of what others need and what others are working on.

Finally, when you become aware of problems or ideas, write them down. I'm a fan of small notebooks; other people use phones or computers or whatever. Look over whatever notes you've taken once a month, and once a year; look for patterns in those.

[egypturnash]

I'm an artist. Most of my methods have clear analogs in what's already been mentioned. But here's something I've done that nobody else has mentioned:

I constructed an imaginary goddess and offered my skills to her.

A couple weeks later, I found myself drawing a Tarot deck completely out of the blue, spent a year on it, and was able to find a publisher for it who's distributed it internationally. I basically consider it my masterpiece (in the old sense of "this is the piece of work during which my skill went from 'journeywoman' to 'master'", not the modern sense of "a totally awesome pinnacle of the art that will survive for the ages").

Another artist friend of mine did a comic that was in part an offering to Ganesh - a statue of that diety figures prominently in the plot. It helped her work get noticed, an agent just sort of appeared in her life and now she's amidst a multi-book publishing deal with a major publishing house.

So, yeah, I know this is kind of wild for the technical atheistic crowd here. But... pray. Maybe to a well-known diety. Maybe one you made up yourself. It doesn't matter who as long as you can whole-heartedly believe in him/her/it/them for the duration of the ritual where you offer yourself and your skills up to Do Whatever. (I would however advise putting some care into your choice as this may result in a long-term working relationship.)

Then pretty much forget about it, just go about your business. You'll find a major project manifesting itself shortly. Consider it carefully as you do the initial doodles; ask yourself "do I want to spend the next year on this?" And if the answer is yes, then DO IT. You will no doubt gain a level in your primary skill and pick up some secondary ones as well.

(I don't know what happens if you turn down the first idea - I didn't.)

NOTE: This is NOT, IMHO, a route for the total novice. You HAVE to have pro-quality in at least one arena, because you need to be able to just crank on the core work of whatever the project is. Success is not guaranteed but it will be really interesting.

---

Less esoterically, I will just repeat what others are saying: keep notebooks where you record every halfway-interesting idea you have, broaden your input to include fiction (how much of the modern age is inspired by sci-fi?) and technical work outside your field (like an artist reading HN!), help out on brainstorming other people's projects.

[stuartcw]

1) Work with a large company for a few weeks. You'll see hundreds of areas where there are inefficiency and problems to be solved.

2) ...

3) Profit.

[groaner]

Step 2, unfortunately, is more likely to be "axe these useless dead-weight middle managers who waste resources on turf wars and lie out of their teeth to screw over everyone else" than some neat technology.

[quadlock]

Learn about a domain. Talk to lots of people in the domain. Ask about pain points, then imagine solutions. Do you have a friend that is an expert in any industry? Often domain experts will have ideas about things that would help their industry.

[pacifi30]

I have done the same things that many people have noted in this thread. Dont try to get an idea, just get in a habit of looking at things and analyze if there is a better way to do it and if there are people willing to use your solution to the idea.

I was in tokyo last month on their bullet trains and suddenly this thing came to my mind that why dont I have a bullet train in States. My iphone is my note book, I keep writing stuff in it whenever I have an idea and in the end it goes to my blog from where I choose the best one I think and start developing it. Some of the ideas are here http://nsingh.posterous.com/steal-these-ideas and if you look they are mostly random things that we come across but still ignore them.

But personally I still think that you have to go out of your comfort zone to get different ideas to work on.

[SuperChihuahua]

http://www.ideaoverload.com/ - Everything About Ideas In One Place To Make It Easier For Everyone To Find New Ideas (including finished business ideas)

[rabidsnail]

Whenever I find myself doing something annoying, or tedious, or slow I ask the question: "Why am I doing this?". The solution to the problem usually stems from the answer to that question.

[ChuckMcM]

I believe it is a way of thinking. I once told someone who asked me about the same question "How can you not see new ideas here?"

I'm a problem solver, and when there is a problem from "keys locked in the car" to "too expensive to move mass to lunar orbit" I just start speculating solutions. Knowing that any problem is in fact a series of problems the other problems get solution speculations on their own, and out of those hundreds or thousands of ideas pop out things that occasionally are both implementable and monetizable.

To give an example of how I think, one day when I was taking a shower I recognized that I'm so busy thinking about things that I sometimes lose track of whether or not I've done one round of shampoo or two. So that suggested a solution where I could make a note after the first shampoo and after the second. And then looking what I had to work with I realized that I could algorithmically determine the issue if I left the cap open on the first go round and if I grabbed the shampoo and the cap was open it was round 2 so just close it. Basically transferring the 'state' of how many times I'd gone around the loop in the state of the cap. Problem solved, no cost. Maybe a nice thank you if I sent it in to "Helpful Hints from Heloise."

So looking around at problems they come in some common forms.

They are the result of something being too complicated thus requiring either specialists or training time.

They are the result of not managing state (like my shampoo problem) where the stage of the solution needs to be recoverable.

They are a result of an economic barrier, so its too expensive to do X which causes problem Y, can you do X more cheaply?

They are the side effect of a desirable thing, so doing X is desirable but has (or sometimes has) undesirable side effect Y. Here the solution makes X better because you find a way to mitigate Y.

They are problems of comprehension. The human brain has a finite capacity for maintaining state, so solutions that either abstract out chunks (and free up the brain for more relevant state) or eliminate complexity, win in those situations.

Then there are solutions that are not currently possible, but would be if 'X' existed. For example, if you had unlimited energy you could easily create liquid fuels out of the air. Sometimes its useful to think about those kinds of things and watch for the 'unlimited energy' appearing in the news (as it would if we suddenly mastered the fusion cycle for example). A variation on this I was doing back in the 80's as a network programmer at Sun wondering what sort of things would be possible when everyone had high speed network access. Consider the more probable new capability like 'easy access to space'. So there are folks like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, etc who are working toward making access to space available to non-NASA types. What problems are those people going to have? Gucci barf bags anyone? How about the sex market for them? We know that nearly every nerd who goes into space, if they have a wee bit of privacy is going to be thinking how they try out sex in space. What do they need to do that? Bigelow wants to put inflatable hotels up there, what kind of luggage do they need?

And there are all sorts of geeky technical problems like "how do you make white space spectrum available to everyone? ", "What sort of cash drawer thing is useful for an NFC enabled world?", "How do I enable non-technical people to have all their purchased video available at their TV?" (clearly the media PC hasn't quite gotten the recipe right there).

If the market is small ask what folks with high levels of disposable income might want.

If cars can self drive how would you build a parking structure for them?

How can I build something that would auto-plug in my Tesla and save it from being bricked without thinking about it?

What does 3D printing mean for the toy business? Can you build a device which parents of young kids or day care centers could use to generate a steady stream of safe toys?

What would it take to make a solar powered device which recycles plastic bottles or cans into something which is more easily processed into new products? Can you build a device which powderizes these materials and then feeds them into feed hoppers for an industrial scale 3D printer? Bottles in one side, park benches out the other?

The thought sequence, venture wise, is always the same:

1) How many people have this problem.

2) How many other ways are there to solve it or live with it.

3) What would it cost to offer a solution?

4) How does the cost compare with the pain of the problem, and the cost of other options (including 'doing nothing'!)

You can use personal experience to work out some intangibles (like how many lines of code would it take and how long to write) and sometimes you have to construct small experiments which help inform the outcome. The key is that if you are ready to accept that your idea isn't feasible (productwise) to just move on. There are lots and lots and lots of ideas out there.

[mkramlich]

good rough process:

1. what is something that sucks?

2. how would you improve it?

3. bonus: how can you monetize that?

[mindcrime]

What is your thought sequence, particuarlly in a new venture that you're thinking about or have already started.

OK, in a venture that I've already started, I go back to our mission statement[1], and decide if the new idea fits the mission. If it does, I think about whether or not it would be a feature of a project we're already working on, or would become a whole new product. In either case, it has to be prioritized relative to the existing work. In some cases, it's easy enough to say "this isn't important enough to work on right now, so it goes in the backlog." In other case, it's not so clear, so you might want to get out and talk to people. I like to bounce ideas off a select handful of people I know and trust initially, and then - depending on the feedback - I might start talking it up to a wider audience, and/or blog/tweet/g+/etc. the idea to solicit discussion.

Do cool things just randomly pop in your head after whatever things you do through life?

Sometimes, but I find that most of the cool ideas I have (well, the ones that I think are cool anyway) occur in response to reading or studying something new, or something that shifts my perspective. I'm a rabid reader anyway, and I try to stretch my boundaries by reading books that span a lot of territory. Even in terms of technical books... I mean, I'm a software guy by trade, but one of the last books I read was Beyond Boundaries[2] by Miguel Nicolelis, which deals with neuroscience and brain/machine interfaces. And lying around here somewhere are some books on nanotechnology, philosophy of mind, artificial life, economics, etc., etc. I often find inspiration from reading something seemingly fairly unrelated to my day to day work.

I also find that talking to interesting people, doing interesting stuff, with other cool ideas, can spark a new idea. As such, I hang out at the local hackerspace[3] quite often, and just listen in, talk to people, swap ideas, etc. Going to user group meetings around new technologies and talking to people there can also spark ideas.

Another neat thing to do, is to follow the "incubator"[4] discussion list at the Apache Software Foundation. Just following what new and interesting projects are being submitted there can potentially spark some cool and creative ideas.

As a follow-up, how do you actually validate whether or not you will actually move forward with it (market opportunity, personal problem, growth potential, ease/challenge of problem, customer validation)?

See above, but if something makes it as far as being seriously considered for a product / product feature, I'm a big fan of @sgblank's "Customer Development" approach. See his book The Four Steps to the Epiphany[5] for details.

[1]: Previous HN discussion on missions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3631611

[2]: Author Website: http://www.beyondboundariesnicolelis.net/~beyond/wordpress/

[3]: http://www.splatspace.org

[4]: http://incubator.apache.org

[5]: http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Successful-Strateg...