How to find a great project ideaRandy Guthrie – Microsoft Academic Developer Evangelist

Elements of a great project• Problem domain expertise or passion• Personal experience• Compelling story?

• Know someone with personal experience• Knowledge of possible solutions• Mentor that can provide guidance• Solves a small part of the problem well• Generalizes well to larger groups of people• Has a self-sustaining cost structure

Step One: Find a problem

• Local problems better than world problems– Hungry people in your community vs. Africa

• Look at your own challenges or of people close to you

• Understand the problem processes: could technology improve the process? How?– Is there a local agency you can talk to?– Is there faculty / lab working on a problem?

• Are existing solutions out there? How are they inadequate?

Pick a part of the process to improve• Ask domain experts: If you had a magic computer program

that could do anything, what do you with it would do to improve this problem?– Where are current cost drains?– What takes too long?– Where are the errors & inaccuracies– Where do they need more people & why?– What doesn’t the current tech do that they wish it did?– What information would help people deal with this problem?– Could persuasive tech change people attitudes and make a

difference?

Storyboard the solution

• Write a scenario (story) of the process improved by your solution– No black boxes ie: …”and then the United Nations

does this part….”

Identify candidate technologies• Start very simple– Web app?– Mobile app?– Client app?

• Does hardware need to part of the solution?– Mobile phone?– Embedded device, sensors or servos?– Other hardware platform?• Existing projects are okay; keep in mind team size limit

Build Wireframe / Prototype

• Mock up app very quickly• Get feedback from domain experts• Make minor mods and lock down initial spec• Start building real tech

Build Your Tech

• Start with interfaces• Simulate data sources at first– Unless you have access to live data feed APIs

• Keep iterating

Sell your idea

• Write business plan– How much to develop?– What is potential revenue / cash flows?– Goal is to be self-sustaining

• Know competing technologies and their strengths and weakness compared to yours

• Get external validation of your assumptions

Create Video

• Video is a 3-5 minute commercial• Includes the following– Description of the problem– Description of who is impacted and how many– Clear description of how your tech solves the

problem– Brief screen demo showing the use of your tech

Keep improving

• Get your tech into the hands of users for alpha testing– Incorporate feedback– Repeat

• Update your documentation/video

QUESTIONS?