[laurex]

I think both "build a cool thing and then see" and "find a problem" both miss quite a bit- what really matters is what motives people have and whether you can make something they perceive to be valuable. The idea that Apple and Amazon didn't largely succeed based on understanding motives and just 'found cool new applications for maturing technologies' has no basis in anything I have read about how they grew. Instead, each had someone at the helm who was very good at understanding the motives of customers and what people value. If you want to have a successful product without wasting a lot of time trying out cool ideas, you can learn what people care about and waste less time. Even better, map your own assumptions and test those, not solutions to problems you think other people have.

[laurex]

Just to add to this, a few things that can help: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick, Demand-Side Sales 101 by Bob Moesta, Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres, and this article on Risk Taxonomies by Marty Cagan https://www.svpg.com/product-risk-taxonomies/

[j45]

Hacking on small problems all the time is a great thing to do - simple enough most people can understand and play around with it and the sunk cost isn't too crazy. Shipping in this case is the most important thing to do.