A while back I made a post asking for advice on scaling strategies for my startup, Fiix, to continue expanding across Toronto, Ontario and eventually Canada. The advice was great from the community and I wanted to return the favour by helping you guys out in any way I can. I received messages from some people asking for a lot of advice after and I thought I may as well just share it with everyone.
I actually have decided on doing this as a series to really walk you guys through how the entire process has been because I’ve realized it’s been such an adventure that I could never describe it one post. Probably can’t in a short series either, but hopefully you guys gain a lot more by me going in depth instead of repeating the basics. You’ve probably heard that a thousand times.
Just a note, I loved Google and think I’m extremely fortunate to have had that chance to work there, so I hope you don’t take this as me bragging. What I really wanted to get at is the following: come up with an idea you love so much that you would do the exact same thing I would – quit what I thought was my dream job – to pursue it.
So, this is part one: coming up with your idea.
Ideally, you should already have an idea in mind you’ve been thinking of. The more unique and different your idea is, the bigger the problem it solves is and the more people it solves that problem for, the better. However, sometimes you need to sit down and think to find that great idea. By doing so, it will actually make you more likely to generate new ideas even after you complete the ideation exercise. Here are some preliminary do’s and don’ts for coming up with an idea.
Don’t: Just wait for the idea to come to you. You won’t always get that “lightbulb” come and hit you in the head. Though some of the best ideas have come from experts or in eureka moments, many innovations have come from understanding the problems people face really well. Even the geniuses had to develop their thesis/knowledge to get to that breakthrough solution, so technically they didn’t “wait around” either.
Do: Brainstorm about problems. Usually, you have to spend time thinking about problems you, your family, friends, coworkers, and even other target groups face. I believe brainstorming sessions are key, because it really gets you to think hard about all the problems you and others face and all the ways to solve them.
Don’t: Be unrealistic about your capabilities. Before you start having brainstorming sessions (I’ll get to how you can optimize them), you need to first assess your capabilities. Though I love hearing stores of people beating the odds and creating something revolutionary that changes society, there needs to be some understanding of if you currently have the tools to make that happen. For example, don’t try to find problems that can be solved via virtual reality products if you can’t code them or don’t have the funds to develop them. Hiring or partnering with a tech specialist is always fine, especially if you aren’t a technical founder. However, the less barriers you have to making your product down the line, the better. Many simple products have been incredibly successful – it just has to solve the problem well and be something people love.
Do: Come up with ideas that play to your strengths. Don’t just look at a degree – assess any skills you may have, even if it’s small. If you can design, code, engineer, write, financially model or present or do something else well, write it down. All of these may be valuable. When we get to the brainstorming strategy, I recommend writing down which of your strengths will complement that idea the best so you can begin scoring ideas.
Now to the brainstorming. We used the An Idea A Day for 30 Days model. In this process, we created an entire business plan with target market, value proposition, adoption plan, funding requirements, and other preliminary items that are included in ideation. A good video guide is here at the Harvard Business Review: http://ift.tt/1A03lPN. The 8 or 9 items it gives for drawing out an idea on what page is really good, and I’d start there or come up with more. This usually takes about 8hrs at least of solid hard work to come up with an idea you feel is compelling and you yourself would invest in.
This might immediately sound extremely intimidating, time-consuming and possibly flat out ridiculous to you. 30 Business plans? Full-time? Even 30 ideas sound pretty insane. This doesn’t need to be all done in one month (maybe on 5 or more weekends) but we recommend doing at least 10 business plans and giving each the same amount of time. The important control variable in deciding the value of an idea is how long you’ve spent on it and how it stands out. By your 10th idea, you will be much better at detecting the bias many initial brainstormers have about their first idea. Usually, people think “god this genius, I’m a genius! I’ve just poured my heart and soul out in the last 8 hours coming up with this idea and it’s foolproof!” Nope. This is the start of likely thousands of hours, so you need to be prepared to dish out 8 hours of hard work like its nothing for an idea you enjoy. If it’s something you really love, it should hardly even feel like “work”.
When brainstorming, think about all the people close to you or groups you know the best. The better you know them and their problems, the more likely you can realistically come up with a solution. Start by thinking of their daily problems as I said, and figure out what are the biggest problems. For example (this is just off the top of my head, and it may very well be a generalization or outdated), you may think of your grandma who may want to stay up to date with technology. She’s always bothering you to fix it and there is clearly a pain point for both of you. What if you create a business that teaches seniors how to use a computer, surf the web, or even take advantage of their smartphone? If this is the case and you see that this is a common problem, that’s where you start thinking “hey, maybe I can create a business for this”.
Obviously, as I’ve demonstrated myself, not every idea will be a winner. Actually, most won’t be. But that’s the point – this exercise will help you generate more ideas and the more ideas you go through, the more strategies you’ll think of for the future ideas. After 30 days (at least go through 10), sit down and evaluate all the ideas. Controlling for time will mean now all the ideas should be relatively equally developed. I’d say at this point, you should pitch all 10 or more ideas to actual customers. Preferably, someone in the target market. If not, the someone with more knowledge about the industry or startups is better, but if family is what’s available, pitch to them. Focus on clarity and making the problem simple and urgent.
After you’ve pitched all the ideas, you want to evaluate their feedback and see which idea actually seems reasonable. Have them rate ideas, but care more about the actual feedback than the arbitrary number. If you want to give it a scoring range, external opinion should be weighted as 50-75% of the score. Then contrast the feedback with what you and your partner/team feel about the idea (or just you if you’re rolling solo). Lay out your strengths/weaknesses regarding each plan (how much do I like the idea of working in this business, how successful do I think it will be, what skills/knowledge do I have that complement this idea) that you wrote down earlier. Also, think of objections and all the problems your ide has – not enough founders run through this and then get blindsided but an anticipated issue. By the end of your 30-day trial runs, you should come out with at least a couple items you feel confident on that have gotten high scores.
Now this takes a lot of time, but you need to be expecting this sort of commitment and much more when running your own business. I can’t express how much this will help, but just doing one of these exercises will make you so much more creative, realistic and it will actually let you realize if you are ready to or even want to start a business. It definitely helped me start thinking outside of my industry and comfort zone, and I hope it will help you.
I definitely don’t have all the answers, so if you disagree or have a different opinion, feel free to let me know. I may have not covered something either, so adding to the discussion is great! I'll try to be in and out to answer questions if you have any, and let me know if you want to know more specifics about Fiix’s specific ideation process.
In the next part of this series, I’ll discuss how got our initial traction (first customer, first 1000, whatever is significant for your startup) and what it really takes to get yours. Without it, even a fantastic product will never get funding, and I’d say it’s the hardest step for most businesses. I’m always swamped but I’ll try to post the next one within the next week or two. Hope you’ve enjoyed it!
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