Solve your own problem, everything else will follow 🙌
Tags: productivity, watercooler, beginners, discuss
Published: 2020-03-23 06:53:25

**Hey friends 👋**

It’s been a long time since I have written something here, but I don’t want to write articles for the sake of “keeping the blog alive”, screw that 🔩!

Well, I finally have a story to tell. After [👽 Postwoman](https://postwoman.io), I'm finally working on a new project since last month. It went from a simple "I have a great idea for an app 🤦" to "a way to solve a problem, not just build an idea 💁".

It'll take me few more steps to make the MVP web app to a full-fledged platform for creators and consumers. I would say that it’s been a very exciting month, but actually, it’s been a bumpy ride for 5.5 years. I made a lot of mistakes and I learned a lot of lessons, so I'll be sharing the entire story with you.

## **Solve your own problem, everything else will follow**

Think about the products you use every day and the underlying problems they solve.

> Want an easy way to get around town? The problem Uber is solving is your need for access to an on-demand car. Uber happens to be the most efficient way to obtain the on-demand car you’re looking for; it is the best app on the market to reduce the friction between your problem and a viable solution.

Often times entrepreneurs start out by defining a product before they have identified an actual problem, and yes — I’ve been guilty of it too. When this happens you’ll easily start to build a product, find a way to market to it, design an attractive website, only to then discover you can’t acquire users.

Instead of identifying a solution first, the initial step is to identify the problem. The key here is to be very specific about the problem you are identifying.

> For example, let’s say the problem you’ve identified is: “I cannot find a fun bar to go to at night in my city.” Start digging into deeper specifics of the problem.

- Once you’ve identified the problem, the next step is to ideate possible solutions, and they don’t have to necessarily be technical solutions.
- Then, from those proposed solutions, create prototypes and begin to test each one.
- Continue testing and refining the prototypes until you have enough validation to move full-steam ahead with the one that is working.

_Narrowing down your prototypical solutions through trial and error is incredibly important before advancing forward with your idea._

So before you hatch an idea, first hatch a problem. Define the specific problem that you are attempting to solve and not the idea that you want to build and test — if you don’t, you’ll end up with a really nice solution and no one to use it.

{% link liyasthomas/postwoman-v1-0-a-free-fast-beautiful-alternative-to-postman-mn0 %}

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I never thought I would be writing again but when I look at my dashboard I see there's 9,820 followers. Are you kidding me? Wow you guys..! I don’t even know what to do with a viral Dev account. I have nothing to promote and even if I did, I wouldn’t do it on here. My heart is filled to bursting with all your response to my words, I’m just a dude with a phone and a little spare time.

🎁 Bonus: when I hit 10,000 followers, I'll be hosting a live AMA on Dev 🎉

If you want a heads up on my next projects, or just want to chat about the web, life and happiness make sure to follow me [@liyasthomas](https://twitter.com/liyasthomas) on Twitter 💙. If any of my projects helped you please consider [making a donation](https://paypal.me/liyascthomas).

![Alt text of image](https://media.giphy.com/media/XymXANrzgI4k6FL6zr/giphy.gif)

{% link liyasthomas/i-m-writing-a-book-de-coding-the-passion-project-2c07 %}

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**IMPORTANT:** I always suck at naming my projects - especially when I develop that by myself. Coming up with a strong name is a critical element of any new product, so help me out here. My new project revolves around a service that takes a payment from one money service (PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Cash app, etc.) and then transfers it to a different money service. Keywords are: pay, cash etc. Here's the initial app icon: ![money-with-wings_1f4b8.png](https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/120/apple/237/money-with-wings_1f4b8.png)

# **Please share your app name suggestions in the comments 🙏**

{% cta https://github.com/hoppscotch/hoppscotch %} GitHub → {% endcta %} {% cta https://hoppscotch.io/ %} Web app → {% endcta %}