How do you come up with ideas for new products?

[AndyD]

From an outsiders point of view I think the drawback about writing software for specific industries is that you need to know that industry inside out. Unfortunately when a client gives you a brief he does so from a very blinkered point of view, he knows nothing about databases and programming and all to often he doesn't have a thorough understanding of his businesses processes at a low level. You are at the opposite end of the spectrum knowing about applications and programming but almost nothing about the way the clients business works. The learning curve from both sides is time consuming making the software expensive. Obviously with ERP software there would always be a core program and I'm guessing different add-ons and modules to adapt it to specific industries.

[rfnel]

From an outsiders point of view I think the drawback about writing software for specific industries is that you need to know that industry inside out. Unfortunately when a client gives you a brief he does so from a very blinkered point of view, he knows nothing about databases and programming and all to often he doesn't have a thorough understanding of his businesses processes at a low level. You are at the opposite end of the spectrum knowing about applications and programming but almost nothing about the way the clients business works. The learning curve from both sides is time consuming making the software expensive. Obviously with ERP software there would always be a core program and I'm guessing different add-ons and modules to adapt it to specific industries.

That is the problem with 'big' applications. In terms of our latest project, my partner and I were very fortunate. The client is a great guy with a technical background (though it is not in IT), and we were able to sit down with him and discuss everything in a lot of detail. We eventually came up with a solution that is sound from a technical point of view, and which fits his requirements perfectly. It did, however, take a lot of discussion and a lot of questions before we could pinpoint everything that the system should do.

Without the luxury of someone who knows the business, breaking into a new market would be very difficult. But as Dave pointed out, innovation is important. Facebook didn't become popular through satisfying some big business need - all it took was a young man with a bright idea which appealed to the masses.