How it works
What is this
A register of meaningful problems to solve.
How it works
This thing is built on the hypothesis that meaningful projects live in the intersection of:
- What people want and are complaining about (in places like forums, petitions, ombudsman inventories)
- What governments and institutions want (and are issuing regulations, tenders or statements to take care of it)
- What is already solved elsewhere (companies exist and got recently funded or are growing solving this problem somewhere abroad)
What this diagram means Each circle is one kind of public evidence. A problem is most worth building for where all three overlap: people feel it, something is pushing buyers to act, and a similar product already sells abroad, so you aren’t guessing.
People want People are visibly asking for this, or complaining that it’s missing.
Government wants A new rule, a deadline or public money is pushing buyers to act.
Works abroad A company in another country already sells this, so there is proof that buyers pay for it.
Where all three meet The register looks for problems in this middle area. Not every problem on the list sits here; its opportunity score shows how strong the evidence is.
Why
- Because I, the creator (mikeoxhard.com (another site)), don’t want to create another app for pet owner networking. I want to solve something that will Make the world a better place™. And because places for global software-shaped problems already exist (ideabrowser.com (another site), bigideasdb.com (another site)) I figured I might start with problems of my country.
- Because I think as the means to build are getting cheaper, the question “what to build” is getting more valuable. This place is attempting to address this question.