Stop judging the idea and judge the problem behind it. There are four things to look at: how often the problem happens, how bad it is when it does, what people already use to deal with it, and whether you can actually test the assumptions your product depends on.

That is the test I use, and it is answerable in a week, which "is my idea good" never is.

Why the idea is the wrong thing to judge

In early product strategy, your goal is to discover whether a meaningful problem exists at all, and whether people care about it enough to change what they are doing to solve it.

That is the whole game. An idea that sounds brilliant and solves a problem nobody minds having will fail. An unoriginal idea that removes something people hate can do very well.

The four questions

1. How often does it happen? A problem that shows up daily is a different proposition from one that shows up twice a year. Frequency is what makes people go looking for something better.

2. How bad is it when it happens? What does it cost them: time, money, stress, or a relationship with someone. What is the hardest part of it.

3. What already solves it, and where does that break down? Existing apps count, but so do spreadsheets, group chats, paper notebooks and asking a friend. Those workarounds tell you what people will accept. And if there is no competitor at all, treat that as a red flag rather than an opening. You have to validate that demand exists, because it might not, or it might be a flame that burns bright and fast.

4. Can you test the assumptions this depends on? Some assumptions are easy to check by talking to people. Others, mostly the ones about money, are close to impossible: people say they will pay and then don't. If your product relies on an assumption you cannot validate, you need a different key assumption.

What a good answer looks like

The strongest position is the one where you already know the users exist, because you have talked to them, and you know they have the problem, because they told you. Then the only real risk left is your solution. That is a much lower-risk place to be, and other than having a viral app, it is the most reliable way to build a product.

Watch what people do rather than what they say. If someone tells me they would love to do something, I don't count that as validation. If they tell me they already do it, now I know I can reach them. It is really hard to convince people to change their behaviour.

When should I drop the idea?

Decide this before you are emotionally invested, and write it down. My rule of thumb: if you have done the research and the competitive work and you still have not managed to prove to yourself that it is a bad idea, keep going.

The opposite also counts as a result. I have told a founder, plainly, that their proof of concept proved the concept was not viable, and that this was a helpful outcome, because it was proven cheaply instead of expensively.

What "good enough" does not require

It does not require being original. It does not require being the only option. It needs to be better, in a way that matters, for a specific group of people, at a moment you can describe.

Keep reading

How Do I Validate an App Idea Without Building It?

The App Idea Everyone Thinks Is Unique, and Why That's Not the Problem

Why Most App Ideas Fail Before They're Ever Built, and It's Not the Idea

Learn this with me

From Passion to Product takes an idea through exactly these questions, class by class, and it is free. Class 2 is the online research, class 4 is the conversations with real people, class 5 is the competition, and by class 6 you know whether there is a product here.

Six weeks, live, and you do it on your own idea rather than a case study.

Join the waitlist for the next free cohort, or get the App Strategy Workbook and find out on your own schedule.