idea-validation

---
name: idea-validation
description: Test whether a proposed product or business is worth pursuing before major investment. Use to pressure-test a customer problem, alternatives, willingness to act and the cheapest meaningful validation experiment; not for building a full product or writing a generic business plan.
license: MIT
---

# Idea validation

> Early working draft. The workflow is a starting structure, not a validated formula for predicting successful businesses.

The objective is to make a better build, pivot or stop decision with less wasted time and money.

## Research

- Describe the proposed customer, their problem, existing alternative, proposed solution, buying or usage context and the riskiest underlying assumption.
- Examine credible public context and authorised private evidence. Distinguish expressed interest, waitlist signups, first-use success, repeat behaviour and payment; each supports a different strength of claim.
- Look for reasons the idea might fail: weak urgency, infrequent need, easy substitutes, difficult reachability, unsustainable delivery cost or a different person controlling payment.

## Execute

- State a falsifiable hypothesis and choose the smallest ethical, affordable experiment capable of changing the founder's decision: observed workflow, customer conversation, prototype trial, landing-page promise test, pre-order with clear terms, or bounded manual service.
- Specify the audience, recruitment or distribution method, real commitment being measured, budget/time ceiling, success and failure criteria and conditions that would make results inconclusive.
- Avoid overbuilding to prove that something can be built. No purchasing ads, collecting payments, contacting customers or changing systems without separate user authorisation.

## Verify

- Check exposure and selection bias, test accounts, funnel definitions and the time available for the measured commitment to occur.
- Report **observed signal**, **counterevidence**, **uncertainty** and **decision** separately. A functioning prototype or many low-intent clicks cannot prove demand or sustainable economics.
- Choose proceed, investigate further, narrow, pivot or stop, and record what evidence would change that decision. Keep the learning in the relevant venture, not this generic public skill.