Develop Your Curiosity is the second step in the IDEAS Process. Learn how to question your idea, research what already exists, examine possibilities, and decide what you need to understand before moving from curiosity toward action.
Quick Summary
- Curiosity turns an idea into questions you can investigate.
- Ask why the idea matters to you.
- Find out whether something similar already exists.
- Think about who might benefit from the idea.
- Identify what you know and what you still need to learn.
- Use AI, search engines, YouTube, books, and experienced people for different kinds of research.
- Your goal is not to prove the idea is good. Your goal is to learn more about it.
Table of Contents
- Curiosity Gives an Idea Somewhere to Go
- Ask Why This Idea Matters
- Questions Worth Asking
- What If Someone Already Did It?
- Use Different Tools for Different Questions
- Using AI as a Brainstorming Partner
- Talk With Real People
- Create a Curiosity List
- Your 15-Minute Curiosity Challenge
- Next Step: Educate Yourself
Curiosity Gives an Idea Somewhere to Go
In the first step of the IDEAS Process, you identified an idea and put it into words.
Now comes a different kind of work.
You start asking questions.
Why am I interested in this?
Who might benefit from it?
Does something similar already exist?
How are other people doing it?
What don't I know yet?
This is where curiosity becomes useful.
You are no longer simply thinking, "I have an idea."
You are beginning to investigate what the idea might become.
Start with Identify Your Idea: The First Step in the IDEAS Process.
Ask Why This Idea Matters to You
Before spending hours researching an idea, ask yourself why you keep thinking about it.
The answer does not need to involve money.
- Does the idea solve a problem that bothers you?
- Does it involve something you enjoy?
- Does it use knowledge you've accumulated?
- Would it help someone else?
- Would you enjoy learning more about it?
- Have you wanted to try it for years?
Knowing why an idea matters gives you a reason to keep investigating when the easy excitement wears off.
Questions Worth Asking About Your Idea
You do not need to answer every question today.
The questions help you see what needs further investigation.
Who?
Who would use this, enjoy it, learn from it, buy it, watch it, read it, or benefit from it?
What?
What exactly am I trying to create, teach, solve, improve, share, or experience?
Why?
Why would this matter to me or someone else?
How?
How might I begin exploring or testing it?
What Don't I Know?
What information, skills, tools, costs, rules, or other details do I need to understand?
What If Someone Already Did It?
This question stops a lot of people.
You search for your idea and find someone already doing something similar.
That does not automatically mean you should quit.
Restaurants already existed before another restaurant opened.
Books already existed before another author wrote one.
YouTube already had millions of videos before someone uploaded another one.
Competition might mean people already care about the subject.
The better question is: What would make your version useful, different, more personal, easier, more focused, or better suited to a specific group?
Use Different Tools for Different Questions
One of the biggest advantages we have today is access to many ways of researching an idea.
Do not depend on one source for everything.
AI Chat Tools
Use AI for brainstorming, organizing questions, examining possibilities, explaining unfamiliar ideas, and helping you see angles you might have missed.
Ask AI to challenge the idea instead of simply praising it.
Search Engines
Use Google or another search engine to see what already exists, compare approaches, locate organizations, examine competitors, and find current information.
YouTube
Use video when seeing someone perform a task helps you understand what reading alone does not make clear.
Books and Libraries
Books often provide more depth than a quick search result, and libraries give you access to information without buying everything yourself.
Experienced People
Someone who has already worked in the field might tell you something that no search result or AI answer will reveal.
Use AI as a Brainstorming Partner
AI becomes especially useful during the curiosity stage because you do not need to begin with a perfectly formed question.
You might start with:
Then continue the conversation.
Ask follow-up questions.
Challenge the answers.
Use the conversation to identify what you need to verify somewhere else.
Reliable Research Still Matters
When your idea involves starting a business, the U.S. Small Business Administration offers guidance on market research and competitive analysis.
Entrepreneurs can also use SCORE for educational resources and mentoring.
The larger lesson applies to every kind of idea. Use reliable sources when facts matter, and compare information instead of trusting the first answer you find.
Talk With Real People
Technology gives us extraordinary research tools.
People still matter.
If your idea affects other people, talk with some of them.
- Would this interest you?
- Have you ever had this problem?
- How do you handle it now?
- What do you like or dislike about the current solution?
- What would make this more useful?
You do not need fifty interviews.
Sometimes one thoughtful conversation gives you three new questions worth investigating.
Create a Curiosity List
Instead of trying to answer everything at once, write down what you want to learn.
Those questions become the beginning of Step Three: Educate Yourself.
Your 15-Minute Curiosity Challenge
Take the idea you selected in Step One.
- Write down why the idea interests you.
- Write down who might benefit from it.
- Search online to see what already exists.
- Write down three things you still do not know.
- Choose one of those questions to investigate next.
You are not trying to finish the idea today. You are giving your curiosity somewhere productive to go.
Continue With The IDEAS Process
Develop Your Curiosity is Step Two of the five-step IDEAS Process.
Explore The IDEAS ProcessEducate Yourself
Curiosity gives you questions.
The next step is finding useful answers.
In Step Three, we'll look at how to research your idea, choose reliable sources, learn what you need to know, and avoid getting trapped in endless research.
An idea starts the conversation.
Curiosity determines where the conversation goes next.
The IDEAS Process
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