My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Cultural Shift Detection Framework
A systematic approach to finding business opportunities by identifying cultural shifts or macro trends that have impacted some categories but missed others
How It Works
Cultural changes spread unevenly across industries. By spotting where a trend has succeeded in one category but hasn't reached another similar category, you can predict and capitalize on that gap
Components
Identify a cultural shift or macro trend that's gaining momentum
Find categories where this trend has been successful
Locate similar categories where the trend hasn't appeared yet
Assess the gap between where the trend is and where the category sits
Position your product/service in that gap
When to Use
When entering established markets that appear saturated, or when looking for low-risk innovation opportunities in consumer products
When Not to Use
In rapidly changing tech sectors where cultural shifts move too quickly, or in highly regulated industries where trends can't easily transfer
Anti-Patterns to Avoid
Example
“Method soap identified that 'lifestyling of the home' and health/wellness trends had hit personal care but missed home cleaning products. They positioned eco-friendly, beautifully designed cleaning products in that gap.”
Related Knowledge
Generate actionable product ideas through international travel and observation
Return from trip with 2-3 validated product concepts that can be immediately prototyped and tested with retailers/consum
Systematically identify and enter established categories with differentiated positioning
Launch a product that captures meaningful market share in an established category by being the obvious different choice
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Creative Tension Framework
A method for creating compelling products by bringing together two disparate or opposing concepts to generate creative t
One Change Rule
A principle that limits innovation to changing only one major element of an existing product or service to maximize prob