New Idea - Key questions to ask yourself?
What are the key questions you ask yourself when validating a new idea?
Here are some I ask myself:
- Is there a clear revenue opportunity?
- Is there a reasonable MVP I can build in <2 weeks?
- Can I build that MVP on my own, with the skills I have today?
- Are there any non-trivial costs of setting this up?
Anything I'm missing? Anything else you guys think of?
The biggest ones you're missing are around validating that you're actually solving a problem with your idea.
I'd put validating the problem above revenue and mvp- in fact understanding the problem will inform these other questions greatly (how much are people paying today, what is at the core of a solution)
One simple extension to "who is my customer":
Without a growth strategy, a product is useless (even if it does solve a problem for a decent customer base).
I like this too Jason. Distribution is definitely a major key.
You're absolutely right. Real blind spot in my above questions. Thanks for adding!
From Steve Blank:
Nice. Similar to what @jonnyburch added above.
Off the top of my head, my key questions are:
Depending on my circumstances will affect the answer to these questions a lot. When just starting out, shipping anything was progress, and vital progress, towards building a business. Now I'm working full-time on my own thing (w/ co-founder), shipping anything is less important. Which means if it takes > 2 days I basically discount it as it's not a priority. But there's still a lot that can be learned and gained from shipping new ideas regularly, so if it's under 2 days work (a weekend) then I'm still into those despite my main focus being taken up.
I REALLY like the last one. It protects you from recency bias and just chasing each and every new shiny idea. So important to remind yourself of your other priorities (a.k.a last weeks, months, years, sexy shiny idea).
I personally like the meat grinder approach: https://tylertringas.com/business-ideas-meat-grinder/
I've heard of Tyler before (through the IndieHackers podcast actually) but never seen this post. So good! Thanks for sharing.
Jackpot, this is the same way i validate my ideas.
I also add the amount of time i would need to develop and market it.
BTW i wish i could my MVPs in 2 weeks...
Buffer's MVP was a small landing page.
If your MVP takes more than two weeks, you probably want to rethink your MVP :)
From buffer's blog post:
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Nice and simple. I like it.