every 'Product Manager' & 'Entrepreneur' should first become 'Problem Sherlock'

1 question that all Wantrepreneurs, Product Managers/Owners, & budding Entrepreneurs often have/ask is:
Are there still more new ideas like Facebook, Google, Uber, Amazon, Airbnb, eBay, etc.?

The answer is 'Yes' - a mammoth YES!!!

An idea is nothing but a Problem-solving-Product (notice the fact that 'Problem' comes before 'Product').

And the good news is that there are; and always will-be; trillions of problems waiting to be solved.

Though almost all problems look trivial/silly in the eyes of a normal person, they have the pottential to be turned into the next Facebook, Google, Uber, Amazon, Airbnb, eBay, etc.

To give you a bit perspective on what I just said, consider this:

1. In 2004, if you asked any normal person about having a site to connect to friends and post photos, they might have been quite unexcited about the idea.
2. In 1998, if you asked any normal person what would be the value of a company that does only search, they might have said a max of $1M - As a matter of fact, the Google founders themselves were willing to sell for such a small amount.

Point is, no company at the start ever looks like Google/Facebook/etc. in their present corporate form.

So what should be your steps towards building a Product?

1. Be a 'Problem Sherlock' - Keep looking for problems waiting to be solved - Lets say, if you are starting a healthcare startup, you should spend 4-6 months in a large scale healthcare system. Shadow doctors each day. Have lunch with the nurses. Go for drinks with the CMOs and CIOs. Basically breathe and live the life of a healthcare system from a patient perspective, from a doctor’s perspective, and from an administrator’s perspective. And when you do all of that, you start seeing the problems in the system.
2. Make a list of problems that you want to attack - Pick up the problem that some business needs or where someone would pay you money - This is your 'the Problem'.
3. Don’t worry too much about how big that problem is.
4. Don’t worry too much about how big the market is.
5. Nobody - none of the investors or experts - ever had a clue of how big Microsoft, Apple, Google or Amazon was going to become.
6. Avoid the need to go to an investor.
7. Come up with solutions for it.
8. Talk to your users/consumers to know if what you think/theorize will work.
9. Build a Product around the solution.
10. As you get sustainable, you will find a way to build a much bigger idea and get clarity on the market.

Summary is:
As a Product Owner or Entrepreneur it is your duty to unearth, find, discover, decode, understand a good problem and then work on solutioning it to ultimately build a product that can generate money for you.
The 'Problem' is the key/starting Point and you need to ensure that you make it not just right but also Perfect.
So, be a 'Problem Sherlock' and go search your 'the Problem'...

The word 'Problem Sherlock' is a copyrighted © property of the Owner of this blog.

Reproduction in any form or medium without the written permission of the owner is strictly prohibited by law.

Source:

Mostly copied from Balaji's answer on Quora
inc42.com/features/punit-soni-ama-healthtech-robin/