A lot of times I get ideas from considering these types of experiences with how people operate. If it's a magazine, a social situation or a TV commercial, they might collide with the abstract thoughts floating around in your head at just the right angle, producing a great idea.
People talk a lot about swimming around in your thoughts to conceive ideas. This is something that I definitely support; people spend way too little time letting their mind wander, and so they end up only being able to think in the shower or in line at Starbucks. Setting aside more time to do this, along with refusing to whip out the smartphone to read HN or check in with foursquare every time something isn't immediately demanding your attention, will give your mind a better chance to conceive new ideas and consider old ones.
That said, often it takes a little fuel to jump start your thought process. Something specific to consider, to trigger memories and begin a train of thought. As people in the startup industry tend to be more technically inclined and thus, occasionally lose sight of their market's intellectual abilities and social tendencies, it can be refreshing to embed yourself in the types of things people do that you expect to use your product.
One way I've come up with some of my best ideas is at school working on a boring, hard project with a major deadline looming. Those tend to be the best times to start day dreaming and procrastinating.
People talk a lot about swimming around in your thoughts to conceive ideas. This is something that I definitely support; people spend way too little time letting their mind wander, and so they end up only being able to think in the shower or in line at Starbucks. Setting aside more time to do this, along with refusing to whip out the smartphone to read HN or check in with foursquare every time something isn't immediately demanding your attention, will give your mind a better chance to conceive new ideas and consider old ones.
That said, often it takes a little fuel to jump start your thought process. Something specific to consider, to trigger memories and begin a train of thought. As people in the startup industry tend to be more technically inclined and thus, occasionally lose sight of their market's intellectual abilities and social tendencies, it can be refreshing to embed yourself in the types of things people do that you expect to use your product.