How do you decide which problem to build a product for?

I use a three-filter test: it must happen daily, the existing solutions must be inadequate, and a small object must be able to fix it without adding a new annoyance. Most ideas fail at least one filter.

Why not just ship faster?

Speed is overrated for physical goods. A bad object lives in someone’s home for years. We would rather take a long time and ship one that earns its place.

What is on the list now?

About 90 entries, after nine years of adding. Most will never become products. A handful are in active prototyping under the Sidekick name.

A notebook entry about friction

What counts as a small problem worth solving

I kept a list for three months. Every time something physical annoyed me at home, I wrote one line in a notebook. By the end of March 2017 the list had 47 entries. Most were not problems anyone would build a product for.

Some were solved with a five-dollar item on Amazon. Some were solved by moving a chair. A few were the kind of friction that nobody had solved properly, and the cheap solutions on Amazon made the friction worse.

Three filters I used

Does this happen at least once a day. If not, no product is going to earn its space.
Is the existing solution worse than the problem. A bracket that scratches the wall is worse than the cable on the floor.
Can a small object fix it without adding a new annoyance. If the fix needs a manual, it is not the right fix.

Why most products fail the test

Most consumer products are made by people who saw a category, not a problem. They added a feature, lowered the price, and shipped. The shopper buys it once, uses it twice, and forgets it. The object becomes the new piece of clutter.

The products you keep are the ones that disappear into the routine. You stop noticing the friction is gone. That is the bar.

The first three entries from the list

Drinks balanced on couch armrests. The leather stain came back twice.
Charging cables that slide off the nightstand at night. Always behind, never reachable in the dark.
Bath caddies that grow mildew in the cracks. The fix becomes the new problem.

Number one became the Sofa Sidekick, eventually. Numbers two and three are still on the list. They are still problems. They might become products. They might stay in the notebook. Either is fine. The point is the notebook.