The more you know about an industry, the easier it is to identify the shortcomings inside that industry. That's essentially what entrepreneurs do on a regular basis. They spend their time looking to change how people do things so they can improve lifestyle for themselves and often for others.
Before you get started doing what you are passionate about, you need to identify enough potential customers with the need you intend to service.
You can do this by starting with search engines, and migrating to social groups either in Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and forums as well as many other venues which we will look at in the coming future.
Identify what people are talking about, and you will be amazed at how many people overlook opportunity right in front of them simply because they don't take the time to pay attention.
You are going to have that advantage because you are in those venues with a purpose to identify a need and fulfill that need.
There are keyword tools that you will be able to use as well such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool and many others that have specific uses that you may wish to use. We'll learn how to use those tools to find the information that you need and weed out the stuff that fogs your results.
You may have to dig deeper or you may quickly find you have a market that is hungry and willing to accept your solution. In some cases, you may determine a solution has already been offered, allowing you to modify your idea.
You might even find a better opportunity marketing a solution that has already been offered, but is no widely known to be available.
Regardless, the more research that you do, the more refined your idea will become.