4 ms·

I've heard one of the best ways is to work at a company for awhile and identifying what they have problems with.

by yters 8y ago

giarc 8y ago
Another neat approach is to use Google auto complete to help. If you are a Excel wizard, type "I wish Excel could..." and let Google complete the rest. You might find some interesting use cases that people are searching for.
- tacon 8y ago
  I tried letting Google complete that for me and it didn't offer a single completion. Go figure. A great general approach, though. After sorting through a bunch of junk about making an Excel wish list, here are some pages about suggested Excel improvements: https://www.thespreadsheetguru.com/blog/excel-weaknesses-a-wishlist-for-improvements https://www.thespreadsheetguru.com/blog/excel-weaknesses-a-w... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/excel-wish-list/174196bf-6a23-4687-937d-d5cdee3d8d43 https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/excel...
- cosmie 8y ago
  You don't even have to be an Excel wizard. Just a competent Excel user. A previous company I worked at made YouTube videos for content marketing purposes. For some reason that no one could explain by the time I started there, the first couple videos in the account were random, basic Excel tutorials. Nothing fancy. Just things like using the Cell Formatting dropdown or doing a VLOOKUP. Those videos were 5+ years old by the time I left. And in their worst week, a single one of those Excel videos got more views than the entire view count of every non-Excel video combined. It was crazy.
astrodust 8y ago
If you roll around in enough problems you'll eventually find one that's not solved properly and yet is fairly prevalent.
davidsawyer 8y ago
Another similar approach is to see what crazy process they're trying to jam into Excel or Google Sheets, and then you can build a more tailored app for that process, ideally if other businesses could benefit from it. Edit: I should've read giarc's comment below! We're essentially saying the same thing.

I've heard one of the best ways is to work at a company for awhile and identifying what they have problems with.

by yters 8y ago

I've heard one of the best ways is to work at a company for awhile and identifying what they have problems with.

Another neat approach is to use Google auto complete to help. If you are a Excel wizard, type "I wish Excel could..." and let Google complete the rest. You might find some interesting use cases that people are searching for.

tacon 8y ago
I tried letting Google complete that for me and it didn't offer a single completion. Go figure. A great general approach, though. After sorting through a bunch of junk about making an Excel wish list, here are some pages about suggested Excel improvements: https://www.thespreadsheetguru.com/blog/excel-weaknesses-a-wishlist-for-improvements https://www.thespreadsheetguru.com/blog/excel-weaknesses-a-w... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/excel-wish-list/174196bf-6a23-4687-937d-d5cdee3d8d43 https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/excel...
cosmie 8y ago
You don't even have to be an Excel wizard. Just a competent Excel user. A previous company I worked at made YouTube videos for content marketing purposes. For some reason that no one could explain by the time I started there, the first couple videos in the account were random, basic Excel tutorials. Nothing fancy. Just things like using the Cell Formatting dropdown or doing a VLOOKUP. Those videos were 5+ years old by the time I left. And in their worst week, a single one of those Excel videos got more views than the entire view count of every non-Excel video combined. It was crazy.

astrodust 8y ago

If you roll around in enough problems you'll eventually find one that's not solved properly and yet is fairly prevalent.

davidsawyer 8y ago

Another similar approach is to see what crazy process they're trying to jam into Excel or Google Sheets, and then you can build a more tailored app for that process, ideally if other businesses could benefit from it. Edit: I should've read giarc's comment below! We're essentially saying the same thing.