Questions

For the following ideation methods, you can use these questions to help provoke startup ideas.

ineedthis

1. What was the most time consuming or arduous task you completed last week?
2. Name 5 of the most repetitive and trivial tasks that you complete from week-to-week.
3. What is a responsibility that you have been putting off for weeks. Why haven’t you done it yet?
4. Complete the following sentence. If I had endless resources, I would pay someone to _________.
5. What is the most urgent and important task on your to-do list right now?
6. What is the most mundane assignment you completed within the last month?
7. What was the most inefficient process or workflow that you experienced in your last job?
8. Complete the following sentence. In the future I will not have to deal with _________.
9. What is something you want to learn to do, but don’t have enough time to dedicate to it?
10. Think about a community that you identify with; what is one pressing need of the community and how would you solve it?
11. What was a common process or experience (e.g. handwritten thank you notes) that you remember from the past that no longer exists? What replaced it (e.g. emailing thank you notes)? What can replace the replacement?
12. What idea, problem, or opportunity keeps you up at night?
13. What product do you wish existed?
14. What do you do for fun?
15. What do you do on vacation?
16. What is fun to you, but weird to others?
17. What do you think about before going to bed?
18. Complete the following sentence. When I am with friends, I really enjoy _________.
19. What motivates you more than anything else?
20. Complete the following sentence. The most joyful time in my life was _________; I wish I could repeat the experience over and over again.

mything

1. The people who know you the best would say you are a master of what?
2. What do you know that few people know or understand?
3. What is something you understand about some area that a common enthusiast does not?
4. What is the biggest challenge facing your area of expertise? How would you address it with unlimited resources? How can you implement that solution with limited resources?
5. What was changing rapidly in your last place of employment?
6. In what part of your life are you an early adopter?
7. Is there some aspect of the future that you can predict particularly well?
8. What is your secret sauce?
9. What hobbies influence your professional life?
10. What is your most unique ability?

whatsnew

1. What is the latest meme?
2. What are the most popular apps in the app store right now?
3. What new user experience of an app or application confuses you?
4. What behavior surprises you about your younger generation?

sameold

1. What is an old technology that's been around a long time? How can it be made more invisible?
2. What is an old technology that's been around a long time? How can it be made more human?
3. What is an old technology that's been around a long time? How can it be made more natural?

technologyinsearchofaproblem

1. What is a cutting edge technology you are learning about in class?
2. What is uniquely interesting or effective about a given technology?
3. Consider how any of these technologies could be applied to any answers from any other questions.

featureinsearchofaproduct

1. What are the best features of the apps or applications that you use the most? What would it means for each of those features to be a standalone product?
2. List the most utilized features on your phone's, tablet's, or desktop's operating system. What would it means for each of those features to be a standalone product?