How do I market a great idea?

How do I research the market without bias for existing products similar to the product idea I have in mind?

• What I think is that I have a revolutionary idea in a category which gets a new smart-phone application every day. Now I dismiss an application based on the smallest of the things I don't like about them and fantasize about how the product I'll be building would be better. This leads to: 1) Me missing out on some amazing features other products offer that would be great to give out in my product too. 2) Me missing out on products that are quite similar to the idea I have and not analyzing why they failed. What are the ways to overcome this? What else should I keep in mind while researching the market?

• Answer:

  It's good that you are aware of your mistake. But why are you doing it? Why are you not going deeper into competitor applications and understand what works & what doesn't? How they made it or what brought them down? Looks like you are looking for reasons to dismiss a competitive application rather than studying them in detail and see how your application idea fares. May be you are over confident or complacent. You think yours is a revolutionary idea and it may well be one. But if that thinking makes you feel over confident then you would certainly be biased against competitive offers in the market. Remember it's the market and your customers who have to validate and label your app as a revolutionary one. Not you.  You may very well feel that it is revolutionary but don't spend much time thinking like that. You don't have to, definitely not until it is promotion time. That way you will be much more grounded with your idea and will be more open to compare competitive apps. The only way to overcome your bias is to lay down a method and follow it scrupulously. Develop a method / framework for comparing your idea with competitive offers in the market as well as those in the pipeline. Identify aspects of application to be compared, develop methods to compare competitive applications under each aspect and compare. Plot them in a table and rate each app including yours. Do it religiously, follow every step you lay down for comparison. Market research / competitive analysis always tend to be biased when done by owners of ideas, products and services. To overcome this one, see if you can engage someone, who is capable, can do it for you. At least see if you can involve one more person who could work with you through this. I can understand the risks in this but you have to find someone who is capable, trust worthy as well as affordable to help you with this. The good thing is there is a market and there are apps and people who are already into what you are attempting to do. You think you have one better than what they all do. Just ensure you got it right by being disciplined, and may be little methodical in checking them all out before finally being sure of your application idea. If you think you require more help from me you may contact me with more details. All the best.