Idea

A formula to tell if your idea is good: for Engineers & logical thinkers.

Is your idea good?  This comes up in a ton of contexts, from entrepreneurship and startups to brainstorms and even into big companies and small projects.   Even if you are just coding up something, you are usually working from an idea.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know if your idea is good, perhaps even BEFORE you’ve tried it?

The following logical flowchart is designed with that in mind.  Enjoy!

Step 1: Do you think your idea is good?
IF YES: Proceed to next step.
IF NO: STOP!  BAD IDEA!

Step 2: Do others think your idea is good?
IF YES: Proceed to next step.
IF NOT: STOP!  MEET with those others and talk through what’s not good about it, improve it, then go back to Step 1!

Step 3: Will your idea take less than 1 day to build and test?
IF YES:  GOOD IDEA!  Build and test it!   It’s almost always worth it to test an idea you think is good, and get the results of the test.
IF NO: Proceed to next step.

Step 4: Can you build a “fake version” of your idea in less than 1 day and test it?
IF YES:  GOOD IDEA!  Build and test it!   It’s almost always worth it to test an idea you think is good, and get the results of the test.
IF NO: Proceed to next step.

Step 5: Can you build a “REAL or fake version” of your idea in less than 1 day and then test it in less than 1 week?
IF YES:  GOOD IDEA!  Build and test it!   It’s almost always worth it to test an idea you think is good, and get the results of the test.  Sometimes the testing takes longer (like an A/B experiment requires time to gather data).  Still, worth it!
IF NO: Proceed.
Step 5: Is there a way to measure if your idea is good?
IF YES:  Proceed.
IF NO: Rethink the idea to include a way to measure if it’s good or not, then go to Step 1.

Step 6: Work hard to see if you can build it faster in a way that can get you ‘measurable results’ if your idea is good or not….   and then build it and measure it.

That’s it!

I know maybe you were thinking there is some algorithm to “actually” tell you if your idea is good or not… newsflash, it cannot exist.  What can exist though is a new kind of thinking: think measurement first!  If you can’t tell if your idea is good or not (by some measure) then why even ask the question?

No go out there and Measure!

Solving the full problem by focusing on the target market

Got an idea for a startup? Great!  Now, tell me, what problem does it solve?

Well, if you are having trouble articulating that, or, if you want to improve your chances of succeeding… Read on!
So many ideas solve nobody’s problem.  And so many ideas solve a problem only partly; or barely.
If you want to succeed in: your Kickstarter, your indiegogo, your launch, your business – you need to be thinking – what is the full problem!
Here are 3 tips to help you think about the problem you are solving.
1. Target market!  –  really try to narrow down on whom is the target market!  Gender, age, and psychographics!   As specific as possible.  Remember, nothing can solve everyone’s problem, but something can solve someone’s problem completely and make them very happy!
2. Think solve problem, not your idea.  Probably your great idea helps solve the problem, but most likely you can add 2 or 3 components (even if it’s just documentation) to really completely solve the problem.
3. Cut out anything that is not truly necessary to solve the problem for the specific target market you have in mind!
Now, get out and solve something!

Your idea sucks… analytically speaking.

Does your idea suck or rock?  If you want to try something more than “my friends like my idea”, “my teacher likes my idea”, or “I know I would buy it”… consider an analytical approach to opportunity analysis.  Why not say, this idea is a 25.  Then you can compare that to what you are doing now (probably a 12).   Or compare it to another idea (wow, a 38!)…  If you ever wanted to know if your idea is good, from an analytical perspective… read on.

There are 2 Acronyms that Harvard MBAs (and UT MBAs) learn: POCD and SWAT.  They both boil down to “Pro and Con” type thinking… but they both also add something useful.
POCD = People, Opportunity, Context, and Deal.  
P – Are the people likely to be able to succeed (the right people)
O – Is the opportunity big… (how big is it)… (how much money might be made?)
C – What is happening in context of the world at large that is or MIGHT effect this opportunity?
D – How much money will it take to get to success, and what are the terms and risks?
I often use POCD to look at 2 different opportunities, I use a 1-10 scale to compare them… here is an example:
Karmaback
P – 9 (my team rocks)
O – 7 (its tough to make money in social right now)
C – 10 (Social is heating up and people are looking for our solution: how to make money with Social Marketing)
D – 8 (not a lot of funds needed)
SCORE: 34
— vs. —
Making my own social game (something I’d like to do someday)
P – 5 (I have no artistic talents)
O – 4 (hard to make money with just 1 game)
C – 7 (social games are hot)
D – 7 (not a lot of money needed to make a social game)
SCORE: 23 (better than I thought it would be)
SWOT is very similar, and does add a valuable concept (that POCD doesn’t directly address)
SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
I don’t directly use SWOT, but I do like the thought of “threats” as part of the “Context” in the POCD framework.
So, the next time you are asked, is this a good idea?
Give them a POCD score.  It’s fun.