We have plenty of ideas. Likely more than 40. More than 50, maybe. They are everywhere.

Sticky notes. Notes apps. Random messages. Post-meeting discussions. Things that come up when we're working. Ideas that spring from something that happens in everyday life.

Some are half-cooked. Some are shockingly good. There are some that we get very excited about.

And most of them will probably never turn into products.

Those We Leave Behind

We stumbled upon one we really liked.

A roommate app.

The idea was to make living together a bit easier, sharing responsibilities, dividing bills and rent, keeping track of schedules, and generally making all the little things that come with sharing a home less painful.

We thought about it for a long time. We enjoyed it.
But we didn’t build it. And that has happened more than once.

There are times when we hold on to an idea for too long, only to discover that somebody else has already built it – and probably built it better.

Sometimes we just aren’t there yet.

It could be a good idea, but it does not feel right for the team right now.

And sometimes an idea just won’t leave us alone.

That’s when things usually get interesting.

So how do we decide?

It's not one thing.

For larger projects, we look at the market. We hit the books. We test. We attempt to determine if there is indeed a problem that needs to be solved, and if the solution will matter to people.

The data is valuable. But the feeling does too.

Sometimes we have an idea that we can't get out of our heads. One that keeps getting mentioned here and there. One that makes us want to build it, just to see what will happen.

When those two things come together — something we believe in and something the data backs up — that’s usually a pretty good place to start.

An idea is merely an idea

That might be the most important thing that we've learned.

An idea cannot be considered a product just because you had the idea; it isn't actually yours merely because you have written it down; it doesn't truly exist until you take some action based on it.

Waiting for the ideal plan, the ideal budget, or the ideal moment to begin is something that can easily take months.

It's very possible that somebody else has already had the same idea. Or ten or a thousand.

That doesn't make your idea less interesting. Because nobody has thought about it exactly the way you have.

Go ahead and build it. Observe what occurs. Gain some knowledge. Make the necessary changes and then build it once more.

Certain ideas will turn into products, while others will remain in a note somewhere, waiting for their moment or perhaps never getting that moment.

We are learning to accept that.

The objective is not to develop every idea.

It's to give the right ones a chance to exist.