Generating Ideas

Kapi Pe Charcha #001 – Venture Highway

I am often asked: “How do I constantly come up with new ideas?” 

While coming up with ideas, do not worry about their originality, quality, feasibility or the opportunity size that they represent. Forget all that. 

Focus on idea generation. Keep reminding yourself – there are no bad ideas. Not at this stage.  

Next – create an idea bank. This could be a notebook – physical or digital (lots of great apps out there for this). It should be easy to add, tag and retrieve ideas. Keep this bank close at hand. 

Now use the following three methods to come up with ideas: 

• Irritants: there are a bunch of things you and the people around you find irritating. These are things you avoid (like paperwork and taxes) or procrastinate over. These could be from your personal or professional life. “I wish I wouldn’t keep opening the same tab again and again in Chrome.” Well, someone was so irritated by this that they built a Chrome plugin to fix it. 
• Repeatables: are there tasks you find yourself repeating at a certain frequency? Paying the bills, watering the plants, cleaning the bike. Most repeatable tasks can be automated or outsourced. Repeatables that are Irritants are fantastic ideas.  
• Enhancers: What are the experiences that become better with a few flourishes? Coconut water is great. Chilled coconut water is even better. Small enhancements can drastically change the experience. Enhancers can also get rid of Irritants. Waiting line too long? Pay a small fee to skip the line and get the VIP experience. 

There are a lot of other methods of generating ideas. 

Ideas are all around us – all you need is constant and deliberate practice of mining them. 

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn.