How does a newbie in IT deal with their big ideas?

Question

Startups

I am 24 years old, I have an idea for a grandiose IT project, but I have almost no programming skills and little free time. I have to work as a loader to support myself and feed the fact that this is hard work that I hate, I am very sorry that the idea remains just an idea and can die with me, without seeing the light, without benefiting anyone. Probably, even if I were a high-class programmer, I would not have mastered the creation and support of such a project alone, perhaps some kind of prototype that has only a small part of the functionality, but I am new to programming and it can take me a lot of time to create an MVP , during which I risk completely losing interest, without creating anything, but I already tried. In my situation (including in the conditions of rapid development of technologies) the idea of ​​independent creation and support of such a large project seems doomed to failure, but you need to start with something, right? The question is asked in order to find out how typical this situation is, how others got out of it and making a decision on how to act for me.

Answer 1

How common is this situation?

More than typical
It would be more correct to say that you have a feeling that your project is grandiose. I don't know a single programmer in the world who doesn't have "big" project ideas. In addition to programmers, tens of millions of other people have ideas for "grand" projects. As a result, of the total number of startups, less than 5% survive after 3 years. Of these, half work in a small plus, only the remaining 2% become successful projects. In other words, even if your project is grandiose, the probability that it will be successful is about 2%. For you to understand how small it is, just betting on a specific number in roulette and winning is much more likely than launching a successful startup. Only in the case of roulette you lose only money, and in the case of a project, money and precious years.
Even if they were, in our time, the probability of launching a successful startup alone safely tends to zero. And even more so as a programmer. Developers can create programs, but rarely can create products. And they also didn’t care about marketing and packaging, it seems to them that if the program works, then success is guaranteed (it’s not).
What needs to be understood?
1) Understand that your idea is an ordinary idea, of which there are billions in the world. It is, on average, no better or worse than other ideas.
2) Understand that even if your idea is amazing and even if you have mastered programming at the level of the best Google engineers, while putting together a strong team of developers, a product manager, a marketing specialist, etc., still your chances of success are 2 %.
3) Understand that if you do not have the team from the previous paragraph, then your chances are about a little over 0%.
What should be done in such cases?
1) Get verbal confirmation that the idea is worth something. For example, after talking about a project to 20 people, seeing how many of them think your idea is at least "normal" doesn't need to be grandiose.
2) Look for analogues. With a probability of 95%, your idea has already been implemented before, check the popularity of the product, see what are the differences with your vision, pros / cons, etc.
3) Once you've received preliminary confirmation that the idea isn't good, it's time to prototype. Here you can see for yourself: either look for people who are ready to work on your idea, or upgrade yourself to a level that allows you to make an MVP, or earn extra money and hire someone who will make an MVP.
4) Once the MVP is done, it's time to show it to people. If at least 10 people are delighted with your product - this is a success, you can look for an investor. If at least 50 people simply use your product without enthusiasm, you can look for an investor. If your product is paid and at least 5 people buy it, you can start looking for an investor.
In general, this is all a difficult path and with a high degree of probability it will lead you nowhere and nowhere, so do not build hopes so that there are fewer disappointments. In any case, good luck

Answer 2

The situation is typical. There is only one way out - to grow up, call a spade a spade, build up competence, gain experience and contacts.
Every first one with your question confuses the warm with the soft - the desire to realize the implementation of the tool for the implementation of the functioning of the business model through the "IT project" and to realize oneself, imitating the "people from the magazine cover". In addition, each of the first believes that for some reason his idea is equivalent to a working business model, that his startup will definitely shoot, that his idea was invented for the first time by him, and there were no previous attempts to do this, while the parent of the idea has no experience in development management, management, people management, project management, marketing, software architecture, hiring and finding people, risk management, analytics, strategic planning, etc. But of course, I am sure that he will succeed, and programming seems to him a difficult, serious matter,
It is vital to stop building castles in the air and asking for advice "on the internet" and start making prototypes. And for starters, change your profession.

Answer 3

Naturally typical. For example, in June, I came up with the concept of the project in 2 days. Now I still do it, and this despite the fact that no additional functionality has been added. And do at least another month. And before work, I thought I could do it in a month maximum. Total - 2 days of dreams and 3 months of work without a break. And that's just for launch!
So the way out is a more realistic view of the world. In order to evaluate the volume of labor, investment. And I don't see any other way to TRY. So come in the evening from work as a loader and start doing.

Answer 4

https://www.artlebedev.ru/kovodstvo/sections/161/

Answer 5

A rolling stone gathers no moss.
PS:
If you - the ideologist of the project yourself - do not want to invest your own resources in the project (your time, take a loan, etc.), then why should someone else want to do this?

Answer 6

And what do you want. You either put your time and money into this project and expect something, or you don't do anything. Sitting on your ass and only dreaming about your project, you end up doing nothing. There are a bunch of such dreamers.
Even someone from the Valley in some interview gave a comment.
"At first I went to meetups and saw how many talented people with great ideas and burning eyes." And then I realized that most of them are losers who only talk about their ideas, but have not even tried to implement them.
" all countries.

Answer 7

Test the idea on familiar and unfamiliar people. The book "Ask Mom" ​​(the mom test) will help with survey techniques for testing ideas. Without it, the probability of honest answers is 1%.
Look for a room next. You can search among friends and acquaintances of acquaintances. It is most likely to find enthusiasts among the same people working at an unloved job.

Answer 8

At a minimum, you need to publish your idea for discussion on some specialized sites and forums about startups. Yes, even here you can probably write an idea in the format of a question. This way you get feedback and reaction to the idea. There will be an initial understanding of how the audience evaluates the idea and what advises, whether they like it or not. This will give you an understanding of how to proceed with the idea, whether it is alive or not..)