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02 idea generation

Mon Apr 20 2026 20:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) ·course-notes ·status: stub

Module 2: Idea Generation

Welcome!

Hey there!

Welcome to Module 2 of Low-Ticket Product Creation, a mini-course inside of Low-Ticket Launchpad.

In this module, we are going to walk through the framework we use to come up with low-ticket digital product ideas.

Specifically:

Let’s dive in!

Product Idea Generation Framework

The honest answer is: ideas come from anywhere—and when you get struck by a good idea, you should jump on it!

But if you want a very prescriptive, very actionable answer for how to come up with digital product ideas, I recommend doing this simple exercise.

Step 1: Pick an industry, then pick a niche, then pick a niche-within-a-niche.

The way we organize information in our human brains is categorically.

What this means is everything starts at the mega-category level, and then gets more specific from there.

One of the challenges people have when it comes to creating digital products (and identifying meaningful problems to solve) is they start their brainstorming in a giant mega-category.

Things like:

But it’s worth recognizing these mega-categories are HUGE.

And trying to pinpoint “a problem” (or even a list of problems) inside one of these mega-categories is very, very challenging.

Why?

Because inside each mega-category are:

Take “healthcare” for example.

Inside “healthcare” we could be talking about/to:

And each of these different “audiences” have VERY different problems.

Which means the first step is to niche down.

Ideally:

It’s a game of specificity.

How To Niche Down

So, let’s make this as actionable as possible.

How do you niche down?

The point is, you will come up with WAY higher-quality digital product ideas if you go through this exercise and get more specific, first.

Whereas if you stay broad, all your ideas are going to be vague.

Step 2: List out the 10 Biggest Problems in your chosen niche/industry.

DO NOT BEGIN THIS STEP UNTIL YOU HAVE:

I promise, if you skip this specificity exercise, you’re going to come up with low-quality ideas and then you’re going to come back and say, “Cole! This framework doesn’t work for my industry! I’m a special snowflake and my situation is unique and nothing is ever going to work for me!”

Blah blah blah.

Trust the process, young Padawan.

Once you have a SPECIFIC Niche-Within-Niche (pick something), the next step is to list out the 10 biggest problems you are aware of inside that niche-within-niche.

Pro Tip: Your “niche-within-niche” should be something you have personally experienced. This is the easiest place to start because chances are YOU have experienced these very same problems (and ideally found solutions to them for yourself).

For example: Ship 30 for 30

When we started Ship 30 for 30, the first step was for us to get more specific.

Here’s what that looked like:

The mistake, and something that would have killed Ship 30 for 30 from the very beginning, would have been for us to say “we help ALL writers!”

That’s not true.

We got specific, and we said “we help beginner writers start writing online.” (Which, by the way, was a niche-within-niche both Dickie and I had personally experienced, struggled with, and where we found creative solutions to our own problems.)

That’s Step 1.

Step 2 is we then listed out the 10 biggest problems THAT SPECIFIC PERSON (Niche-Within-Niche) had and needed help with.

For us, that list looked like this:

Now, are there more problems than just these 10? Of course.

The game isn’t to list out “every possible problem” (although, there’s no harm in starting there—if that helps you).

The game is creating a list of the Top 10 Biggest Problems for this specific niche-within-niche.

(You’ll be using this later in your marketing materials!)

Step 3: List out the 10 Most Desirable Outcomes in this niche-within-niche.

Once you have your list of Top 10 Biggest Problems, now skip to the end.

Three pro tips here:

First, again… the 10 Most Desirable Outcomes in this niche-within-niche should be outcomes you, yourself have wanted, strived for, and/or accomplished. (Otherwise, why are you selling a solution to a problem you haven’t even solved for yourself yet!?)

Second, if you want to make this exercise really easy, just take your list of 10 Biggest Problems and write “the desirable outcome” next to each one.

Third, I encourage you to write these Desirable Outcomes as “I” statements. Put yourself in the shoes of the customer.

For example:

Notice how revealing this exercise is!

Especially when written in “I” statements, you really put yourself in the mind of the target customer.

(And again, you’ll be using all of these in your marketing materials later!)

Step 4: Pick the most painful/expensive problem and create a digital product to solve it.

Now, here’s where it all comes together.

Ideally, if you picked a specific enough niche-within-niche, you should be able to find ways to help people solve all 10 of those Biggest Problems. (For example, in Ship 30 for 30, we actually speak to, provide education and templates, and do our best to help people solve all 10 of these problems!).

But when it comes to POSITIONING your product, leading with 10 problems doesn’t work.

The whole secret to positioning is to lead with ONE problem.

“But Cole… even if your product helps them solve more than just that one problem?”

Yes.

The single problem you lead with is what allows you to take hold in the customer’s mind.

Said in the inverse: if you try to lead with all 10 problems, then the customer doesn’t know which one is the priority. (If they’re “all” the priority, then “none of them” are the priority.)

So you HAVE to pick 1 single problem to position your digital product around.

Then, you can speak to the other problems you ALSO solve:

Understood?

Most Valuable Problem: Checklist

Now the big question, of course, is: “OK so which problem do I pick?”

I’m going to give you the subjective answer, and then the objective answer.

The subjective answer is: pick whichever problem you feel most inspired to solve or have the most connection to. At the end of the day, it’s your decision, and you’re much better off picking a problem you GENUINELY care about solving (for yourself, for others, and in the world) than just trying to “pick a profitable problem” but isn’t something you really care about.

The objective answer is: if your primary goal for building a low-ticket product is to make money, then I strongly encourage you to pick a problem that checks the following boxes…

Something I have learned (the hard way) is that not all problems at created equal.

Meaning all Top 10 Biggest Problems you come up with for a specific niche-within-niche might be valid, might exist, and might even be painful and worth solving.

But not all of them will be as easy to get paid to solve.

For example: Let’s evaluate 1 of the problems from our list through this checklist

Now, is this the right problem to lead with?

Well, let’s evaluate it:

So this Problem checks 4/5 boxes.

Not bad!

But it definitely begs the question… is there another problem on our list that potentially checks all 5 AND is even more valuable to solve?

I’ll skip to the answer: yes.

Now let’s evaluate this problem:

As we went through this exercise for each of the 10 Biggest Problems, we realized that “Writing Consistently” was actually the biggest problem of them all—and the one we not only felt most excited to solve, but was directly correlated to people making more money.

And anytime your digital product helps people MAKE MORE MONEY, NOT LOSE MONEY, SAVE TIME, OR UNLOCK STATUS, it’s easier for customers to rationalize buying it—because they can imagine a clear ROI.

Product Idea Generation Q&A

Now, whenever I walk through this exercise of how to come up with digital product ideas, I always get asked the same handful of objections.

And those objections are really just disguised as questions.

So I’m going to answer them here.

“But Cole?! What if I pick the wrong problem and have to start all over?!”

Who cares.

  1. If you do this exercise, it’s unlikely you pick a completely worthless problem. All problems are worth solving, it’s just some are “worth” more than others—and you’ll learn which ones those are over time.

  2. Solving this first problem is only going to make you better, and help you build skills. Which means whatever problem you choose to solve next, you will be more equipped to solve.

  3. There’s no such thing as “wasted time.” You have a skill deficit. Go get some reps.

We have made plenty of mistakes, solved plenty of “the wrong problems,” and had to re-write and re-do all kinds of work over the years.

It’s unrealistic to think you’re going to “get it perfect” on your first try.

Just get better, and keep iterating.

“But Cole?! How do I know if I’ve picked the right problem to solve!?”

Your customers will tell you.

You should have a 1:1 conversion with the first 100 people who buy your product.

(This is the step everyone skips, or wants to believe “they don’t have to do,” but I promise, this is where all the answers get handed to you on a silver platter.)

Your customers will tell you:

They will LITERALLY TELL YOU THE ANSWER.

You just have to a) get going, b) ask them, and c) iterate based on what they tell you.

It’s not hard.

It’s just boring.

“But Cole?! I want to make the most money possible. Which problem do I pick?”

The one most closely correlated to making more money or not losing money.

Here’s an easy example: which one of these 2 problems is more valuable to solve?

Both are problems in the world.

Both problems are probably worth solving.

But the second one is “WORTH” significantly more—because it’s directly correlated to helping a business save a bunch of time and money.

“But Cole?! What if my niche or problem has nothing to do with making money or losing money?!”

If your primary goal is to make money, you have 3 options:

For example: let’s say your niche-within-niche is “15-minute yoga routines for remote employees.”

And let’s say the problem you want to solve is: “not having enough time to do yoga each day.”

A beginner might look at this and come to all sorts of sweeping conclusions:

But someone more proficient (you—now that you have this framework!) might see things differently.

The point is, you either need to pick a more “valuable” problem to solve… OR… you need to get creative with how you anchor the value of solving that problem.

I promise, the VAST majority of the time, there’s nothing wrong with the niche itself.

You just haven’t found the right angle to get the target customer to recognize the value of this problem (and successfully price anchor them to wanting to solve it).

“But Cole?! If I get this specific, my niche will be so small! I’ll have no customers! I’ll make no money!!!”

Repeat after me:

One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to creating digital products is trying to “create something for everyone.”

And as a result, they create something for no one.

I promise you, all the money is in getting hyper-specific about who you help, with what, and how.

Product Idea Generation AI Prompts

I know I’m throwing a lot at you.

So, to make this REALLY EASY, I’ve gone ahead and created a sequence of AI Prompts you can use (in ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, doesn’t matter) to train AI on this framework and have some help brainstorming potential low-ticket digital product ideas.

Just copy/paste these prompts into your favorite AI platform and walk through the steps.

Step 1: Identify your niche-within-a-niche.

First, if you have absolutely no clue where to start, here’s a simple prompt to get your wheels spinning.

All you have to do is copy/paste this prompt and then give AI your general industry, and it will spit back all sorts of different ideas and options to choose from.

Here’s the prompt:

I am working on creating a low-ticket digital product (priced at $350, text and video course), but first I need some help picking a specific niche-within-a-niche.

Here is a training on how this exercise works, and why it's so important.

~

One of the challenges people have when it comes to creating digital products (and identifying meaningful problems to solve) is they start their brainstorming in a giant mega-category. 

Things like:

- Healthcare
- Technology
- Productivity
- Financial Services
- Health & Wellness
- Etc.

But it’s worth recognizing these mega-categories are HUGE. 

And trying to pinpoint “a problem” (or even a list of problems) inside one of these mega-categories is very, very challenging. 

Why?

Because inside each mega-category are:

- Different kinds of people
- Each of whom are faced with different problems
- Looking to achieve different goals

Take “healthcare” for example.

Inside “healthcare” we could be talking about/to:

- Doctors
- Physical therapists
- Healthcare executives
- Healthcare startup founders
- Healthcare insurance providers
- Etc.

And each of these different “audiences” have VERY different problems.

Which means the first step is to niche down. 

Ideally:

- Mega-Category →
- Niche →
- Niche-Within-Niche

It’s a game of specificity.

### How To Niche Down

So, let’s make this as actionable as possible.

How do you niche down?

- **By Industry: Take the mega-category and pick a sub-category within it.** For example: “Healthcare” → “Physical Therapy.”
- **By Demographic: Take the mega-category, pick a sub-category, and then pick a specific demographic.** For example: “Healthcare” → “Physical Therapy” → “Physical Therapy For Remote Workers”
- **By Physical Location: Take the mega-category, pick a sub-category, and then pick a specific physical location or geography.** For example: “Healthcare” → “Physical Therapy” → “Physical Therapists In Chicago.”
- **By Digital Platform: Take the mega-category, pick a sub-category, and then pick a specific digital location or platform.** For example: “Healthcare” → “Physical Therapy” → “Physical Therapists On LinkedIn.”
- **By Price: Take the mega-category, pick a sub-category, and then pick a price range or socioeconomic status.** For example: “Healthcare” → “Physical Therapy” → “Physical Therapy For Single Mothers On Food Stamps.”
- **By Distribution: Take the mega-category, pick a sub-category, and then pick a specific form of delivery.** For example: “Healthcare” → “Physical Therapy” → “Physical Therapy On Zoom.”

The point is, you will come up with WAY higher-quality digital product ideas if you go through this exercise and get more specific, first.

Whereas if you stay broad, all your ideas are going to be vague.

~

I am going to tell you the industry (mega-category) I'm in, and I would like you to give me:

- 10 profitable niche options within that industry
- And then for each of the 10 profitable niche options, give me 6 "niche-within-niche" options based on the 6 provided in the training:

- By industry
- By demographic
- By physical location
- By digital platform
- By price
- By distribution

Are you ready to begin? If so, I'll tell you my industry.

Step 2: Identify 10 Biggest Problems

Once you have some sort of niche-within-niche, it’s time to brainstorm the 10 Biggest Problems.

*Note: I am combining the “10 Biggest Problems” and “Most Valuable Problem To Solve” steps together in this prompt—so that AI not only recommends 10 problems you can solve within your niche-within-niche, but also tells you which 1 (based on my checklist) would be most valuable to solve.

Here’s the prompt—just don’t forget to plug in your niche-within-niche at the beginning!

My niche-within-niche is: 

Next, to create a profitable low-ticket digital product, I want to create a list of the 10 Biggest Problems within this specific niche.

I would like this list of 10 biggest problems to be problems that in some way help the target customer in this niche-within-niche:

- Make more money
- Save money (or stop losing money)
- Save a lot of time
- Or unlock some form of status or industry recognition

I would also like these 10 biggest problems to be things that, if you were consulting me on how to start a business and laugh a profitable low-ticket product in this niche-within-niche, would be the 10 most lucrative problems to solve.

At the end, I would like you to also recommend the most valuable problem out of the 10 you think I should create a product to solve, specifically by running through the following checklist:

- Is a problem that can be OBJECTIVELY measured (meaning you can “prove” that you’ve solved it for the customer).
- Is a problem that requires more than just “an answer” in order to solve (meaning some kind of implementation).
- But most importantly, is a problem that is in some way correlated to either MAKING MONEY, NOT LOSING MONEY, SAVING A TON OF TIME, or UNLOCKING STATUS.

Step 3: Identify 10 Most Desirable Outcomes

Lastly, because you’re going to want to use these later in your marketing, it’s worth taking your 10 Biggest Problems and using AI to help you build a list of the most desirable outcomes your target customer has.

Here’s the prompt—and don’t forget to provide your own 10 Biggest Problems at the end of the prompt!

Now, for each of these 10 Biggest Problems, I would like you to write next to each one the Most Desirable Outcome our target customer in this niche-within-niche would have and how their life would be different if each of these problems got solved. Use as tangible and objective language as possible, and please write each Desirable Outcome as an "I" statement, pretending you are the target customer.

For example:

- **Problem #1: Distractions** → “If I wasn’t distracted, I would be so much more productive.”
- **Problem #2: Over-Editing** → “If I wasn’t constantly over-editing, I would save myself hundreds of hours and publish way more often.”
- **Problem #3: Perfectionism** → “If I wasn’t such a perfectionist, I would get out of my own way, publish more, and maybe even live my dream of being a full-time writer.”
- **Problem #4: Procrastination** → “If I stopped procrastinating, I would finally start making progress toward my writing goals.”
- **Problem #5: Self-Confidence** → “If I had self-confidence, I would finally share the stories and insights and frameworks I think are valuable but have been afraid to write and publish.”
- **Problem #6: Generating Ideas** → “If I had a reliable system for generating ideas, I wouldn’t feel so reliant on my intuition and so easily talk myself out of writing anytime I was struggling to come up with things to say.”
- **Problem #7: Imposter Syndrome** → “If I didn’t have Imposter Syndrome, I would stop comparing myself to other people, publish more often, and just generally feel happier and more fulfilled with my path in life.”
- **Problem #8: Writing Consistently** → “If I was writing consistently, my audience would grow faster, my library would grow faster, and I would achieve my goals as a writer way faster.”
- **Problem #9: Choosing A Platform** → “If I knew which platform to write on, I could finally start my journey of writing online.”
- **Problem #10: Finding Time To Write** → “If I had more time to write, I would be able to write consistently, grow my audience and library faster, and feel like I was on the path to achieving my goals.”

Here are the 10 Biggest Problems, and I would like you to write "I" Desirable Outcome statements next to each one:

- Problem #1:
- Problem #2:
- Problem #3:
- Problem #4:
- Problem #5:
- Problem #6:
- Problem #7:
- Problem #8:
- Problem #9:
- Problem #10:

Module 2 Exercise

That’s it for Module 2 of Low-Ticket Product Creation!

To set yourself up for success, you should take a moment to write down somewhere your decisions/answers to the following variables:

Once you have the above 3 things consciously decided, then…

Finally, once you have all the above clearly defined, run through your Product Idea Generation Checklist:

Having clarity over all these variables, and using this checklist to stress-test your Low-Ticket Digital Product idea is going to have a massive impact on your future success.

So please don’t skip this exercise!

Key takeaways

TODO - For Ray