Where would you be without your laptop, smart phone, Google, take away coffee cups and quick drying nail polish? While you’re busy navigating your day today, think about what you couldn’t live without, the stuff that makes your life that little bit easier. All those things you didn’t even realise you needed, until someone brought them to market.

Every product or service ever created was born from a problem that needed to be solved, or a desire that was waiting to be fulfilled.

An understanding of the problem to solve is the reason we have online check in, Boost Juice and The Genius Bar. So how do you begin to understand the problem to solve? You stand in your customer’s shoes, see her world as it is and then create a better version of it.

That’s how a Sydney Mum invented GameTag and why Starbucks became ‘the third place’.

8 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU LAUNCH AN IDEA

1. Why this product or service and why now?

2. Who am I creating this for?

3. What’s the competition?

4. Do I need to worry about the competition?

5. How is this different and better?

6. How do I research, test, launch, market, distribute, sell, build and scale?

7. Do I need to research, test, and scale or should I just press go?

8. How will I know when I’ve succeeded?

Do you have any stories to share about great products and services that came about through standing in the customer’s shoes, impeccable planning or just starting?

Image by 37prime.