How to choose the right problem to generate a SaaS idea
One of the first steps you can take is to start listening to others. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Does your friend or family has a recurring problem that needs to be solved?
- What is the main problem upper management at your job deals with?
- Are there any software solutions that are able to solve your colleague’s needs?
The next step is to use a tool available to you. I mean the Internet, of course. Maksym Babych, SaaS products expert says that every entrepreneur can ease the search for problems by using web communities and social networks. Here are two tips you can follow:
- Use Ask Product Hunt to check the solutions people are looking for
- Look through posts in various subreddits on Reddit for the problems users are discussing.
The Internet is a perfect place to find what are the problems people complaining about the most. Check them all and choose the one that speaks to you.
How to choose the right problem to generate a SaaS idea
It is better to think not about generating a good solution, but rather to consider what makes a good problem. Not all problems fit SaaS business ideas. What is considered to be the right problem in the world of SaaS? Here are some important aspects:
- It should be specific. Try to pay attention to those problems that are specific rather than general. If we think about project management, for example, it is an issue. But what are the specifics of this problem? How they can be solved? What tools are needed? Who are the professionals looking for the solution? If you ask yourself the right questions, you will be able to specify the problem and find a way to resolve it.
- It should be long-term and recurring. One-time problems are not the ideal candidates for SaaS business ideas. Think of the problems that take place for a long period of time. You can compare two different problems as an example. One of them is a stressfulness of planning a 100-guest wedding as a bride and the second one is the complexity of running an event-planning agency that runs 40 weddings per year. The second problem is better than the first one to choose from. The thing is that the bride is planning a wedding only for a finite amount of time — until her wedding day. An agency has the potential to run for decades.
- It should have a high-growth space. Like any other business idea, SaaS one should be based on whether a problem exists in a growing or fading space. Find some middle ground between problems that exist in dying industries and saturated sectors.
- It should be targeted to the right user. There will always be people who never step back from such solutions like Excel or even good old fashioned pen and paper. Make sure that your target audience has is ready and looking forward to try new SaaS products.
Conclusion
Don’t expect to immediately find the perfect problem you can solve. Remember that the process of finding shouldn’t be easy. Be ready to check a long list of SaaS business ideas before finding the one that has the greatest potential.
