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First Step · 3 minutes

Is your idea actually any good?

Not a grade — a map of viability. Twelve quick questions across the four dimensions that decide whether an idea survives contact with the real world, and an honest read on where your real risk sits. Answer the weak one before you build the rest.

1. How do the people you're building for handle this problem today?
2. How often do they feel this pain?
3. If your solution vanished tomorrow, your users would…
4. Could you name 10 specific people who'd want this today?
5. Will they pay — not just say they like it?
6. Can you reach them without a big budget?
7. Why you for this?
8. Are you chasing this, or is it chasing you?
9. Would you still build it if it stayed small?
10. Why now, and not three years ago or three years from now?
11. What has changed that opens this window?
12. The competition picture:

Answer all twelve for your scorecard.

The four dimensions of a viable idea

Most ideas don't fail because they're bad — they fail because one quiet dimension was never examined. A good idea is strong across all four:

  • Problem. Is the pain real, frequent, and sharp enough that people will actually act on it?
  • Market. Are there enough reachable people who will pay — not just nod along?
  • Founder-fit. Are you the right person to carry this — by experience, advantage, and genuine pull?
  • Timing. Why now? What shift opens the window, and who else is moving in it?

Why the weakest dimension matters most

An idea is only as strong as its weakest dimension. A brilliant solution to a problem no one feels, or a real problem you have no way to reach — either one sinks the build. The scorecard exists to surface that weak point fast, so you spend your energy answering the question that actually decides the outcome.

What comes after the scorecard

A scorecard names the questions; it can't answer them. That's what Validate is for — it puts your idea in front of real evidence and a guided $27 session that pressure-tests the dimension you're weakest on, so you build the right thing or save the months you'd lose building the wrong one.