Ask HN: What are some tools that help you to structurize and execute your ideas? - notomorrow
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superasn
These are some tools that help structure ideas.

1\. Trello: most obvious one i suppose but it's still as useful as the day it
came out.

2\. Workflowy: one of the more recent tools I've found. I like it because it's
100% keyboard based and makes it really easy to work with nested lists.

3\. Freemind: open source mind mapping software. I rarely use it nowadays but
this too is a pretty powerful tool to visualize your ideas and structure them
into nested lists

4\. Freewriting: this is not a software rather a method to create the first
draft of your idea. Very useful sometimes especially for perfectionists who
get stuck at minute details or bikeshedding.

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rp2684
I'm not sure what you mean by tools. But I go about structuring my ideas in
the following way (at least for software related ideas.): First, I do
secondary research about the idea. It's extremely rare that you have a
completely unique idea.. And even if that is true, there has got to be some
very close existing product/service to it. So I learn as much as I possibly
can about them. During my research, I usually go about answering a few key
questions: \- Why hasn't anyone done <your idea> yet? \- Why is it a good time
now to do it? (this is perhaps one of the most important) \- If someone is
doing this, how can you differentiate yourself from them? By
region/features/target audience etc..?

Once those are HONESTLY answered, you should start looking at your idea in as
much detail as you possibly can. Don't assume things will work out or that you
will figure it out later.. Concretely, what I do is answer the following
things: \- How will I get my first 10 users/customers? \- Out of these 10, the
first one to "test" your product/service out, what is their ideal experience?
(and then think backwards as to how you can give them that.. non scalable
method is fine initially.) \- What about the 2nd user? the 3rd user? will the
3rd user benefit in any way because there were already 2 other people before
them to use the product.. (network effect)? \- Why will the 1st user stick to
your product after their first ideal experience? Remember, that most people
dont care much about most things... You have to work through things to keep
the first user onboard. \- Why will the other users out of these 10 stick to
your product/service? \- How will these 10 users cause other's to use your
product? (word of mouth is the best form of growth.) \- Once you reach the
initial steady state of the product (a point where initial automatic growth
stops, current users are happy), what does that look like? And how will you
grow from there? (The what does that look like is very important. How will you
grow from there is something that can be answered a little later too.. as most
ideas never reach that anyways). \- Eventually, what is your plan? And if you
are doing this for profit, how will that plan allow you to make "enough"
money? Again, you should have some idea of this. It doesnt need to be
proven/super concrete, but the clearer this is in your mind, the better.
Having no idea of this is not good, but you are probably wrong if you are
super confident since most ideas evolve quite a bit.

The above is the ideation phase. There are probably tons of things that are
missing from the above, but I think the ones above are quite important to
answer. In the above, I assume you already know that there is proven demand or
there will be demand for your product/idea once people see it.

About the execution phase: \- Start with "drawing" what your product/service
would be like. \- Find a way to get as many people to see it/understand it and
give you feedback.. ideally when you, approach someone with it, try and see
from their point of view. Try and turn your pitch very specific to them, their
problem (which your idea addresses). \- The feedback process will most likely
change your idea/initial design. It may even end up in you not believing in
your idea anymore. This will be a tricky situation to be in. \- If you do end
up "passing" the above, then you most likely will have a concrete
product/service to build. \- The actual building varies a lot based on ideas..
so I am not going to comment on that here. \- But ideally, while you are
building, get as many people interesting in it.. Create maybe a mailing list
of people who will be willing to try it out once you are ready. Do whatever,
but try and get your initial set of users interested and waiting for you to
launch. This will not only boost your confidence, but it will also teach you
lots about how difficult it will be to "sell" our product once you have
finally made it.

I hope the above helps you.. these are just my thoughts from my personal
experiences :) Execution is everything... and it is super hard. You need to
really believe in what you are making in order for it to work out.. All the
best!!

~~~
notomorrow
Thanks for the detailed answer.

I seriously like the 2nd question!

~~~
rp2684
Cheers! Glad to help. If you want to discuss your idea specifically, you can
DM me on reddit: @ilovefunctions

