Caveat: Apologies in advance – I guess this topic has probably been done to death. But if it’s Ok to ask, I just want to try again and see if the popular thinking has changed recently or if someone might have a fresh or novel take on the topic.

I’ve been searching for ideas of open-source projects to either start or contribute to, or consumer apps to build, which might have a chance of getting some traction.

My goal is to improve my professional profile and develop skills beyond what I’m currently being hired to do. For example, develop better abilities around back-end development and scalable architecture.

Doing some market research, such as browsing the Apple App store and trying out various apps, or browsing Github profiles of various professionals, helps me to identify certain gaps.

However it’s very unclear how I would find actual users or consumers who are interested in using my product.

I guess that’s probably a well known challenge – getting people to adopt any kind of new habit, let alone download an app by some stranger, is going to be a hurdle.

But I’m just curious if anyone here has tried out any strategies or tactics for this. Please share if you like.

I’ll soon follow this up with a reply on what I’ve tried so far, and where I had some (albeit limited) success.