Great! There is a theory we can learn and apply to this idea: Affordance Theory.

This theory is created by ecological psychologists James Gibson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

Let’s bring it to the startup thinking context. Affordance is about perception. Finding a startup idea is a second-order perception process.

The first-order perception is how consumers perceive environment and objects including products. If people are using a product by following the function designed by designers, that means they use the product in the way of Normal Affordances.

If people are hacking a product, that means they use the product in the way of Novel Affordances.

The second-order perception is how entrepreneurs perceive consumers’ behavior. If entrepreneurs perceive the phenomenon of Normal Affordances, then they couldn’t find new opportunities. If they perceive the phenomenon of Novel Affordances, there should be some space for exploring new ideas.

A more useful trick is entrepreneurs can be consumers. That means if you are an entrepreneur, you can reflect on your own hacking behaviors. If you can find some Novel Affordances based on an existing products, you probably can find some ideas to develop new products.