I would start by thinking of a problem a lot of people struggle with in their daily life, and brainstorming some ideas for how you could help reduce those struggles in a way that is easy to scale really really fast.<p>The short answer: I would find something people generally don’t like doing, but have to do it, and I would gamify it.<p>This is my long answer on how I might actually achieve that in 12 weeks though:<p>It’s important to realise that the things that I think are problems a lot of people struggle with, are based on my own experience - so for that reason, I would probably spend the first week of my 12 week project talking to people, asking them about what in life is good, what’s bad, what could be better, what they think would make life better and I’d note it down.
I’d approach strangers in cafe’s and at train stations, I’d talk to people at work, I’d go to places I don’t usually go and I’d ask people about the things in their life they they wish were better. Perhaps I could also use surveys to ask people online as well. I’d be all about the data, both quantitative and qualitative.<p>Then, I’d spend the next week of my 12 weeks collating all that qualitative and quantitative data looking for common themes. Then, with a few other people from diverse backgrounds (ie, a homeless person, a computer scientist, a CEO, a stay at home mum, a drop kick teenager, a nerdy teenager etc (where no one is allowed to tell the others what they do, and everyone is dressed sort of neutral) I’d try to facilitate some kind of group brainstorming session of wild ideas for ways you could take that data and create a product or service.<p>In the third week, I might decide to make some really basic good old fashioned paper wireframes based on the results of the brainstorming session for maybe a website or app that will be the platform for my product or service and then take those wireframes to another bunch of random people and get them to give opinions and feedback on it.<p>In week 4, 5 and 6 I might start to working in designing an actual prototype that is similar to what I think the real thing needs to look like, and I’d get even more people, from the groups I’ve already talked to, from my brainstorming team, and from new people I hadn’t met yet, and see what they think.
I might to this, and cycle through this process two or three times before I feel happy that I have a product/service that people will feel adds value to their life.<p>In week 7, I’d launch my product/service. I’d be making sure I’d priced it well (not undervalued it. None of this free trial sort of business. And from there I’d try to scale up. Launching at week 7 would give me time between there and the 12 week deadline, to make the $100k, there might still be issues so early on so it would still give time to keep reiterating.<p>In fact, if the whole thing failed. I’d rather it fail fast, than linger on and waste my time. Fail fast, and try to make $100k another way.