Five Things To Ask Yourself To Determine If You Really Have A Great Idea

Five Things To Ask Yourself To Determine If You Really Have A Great Idea

1. What problem does your "Great Idea" solve?

A truly "Great Idea" solves a problem or fills a need. When sharing or showing someone your idea, a good rule of thumb is the longer it takes someone to "get it" the less likely it is a great idea. If this is the case, you may have some fine-tuning to do or may even go back to the drawing board.

2. How is the problem currently being solved?

If you have come up with a "Great Idea" to solve a problem chances are so have a million of other people. Do your homework! Start with Google searching on every possible combination of words that describe your idea, look in all categories, all different type of wording to not only see if your concept and product is already out there but to see how and what consumers are already buying and doing to solve the problem. Knowledge is power and you can never know too much about your idea and the categories it is in.

3. How does your idea compare to other solutions for the same problem?

Compare your great idea to the current solutions on the market from a time, cost and convenience perspective. Create an easy to follow chart (current solution vs. my great idea. Ask people you know, who can be objective which way of solving the problem they find easiest and most willing to do. (Do not influence them)


4. Who are you? What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Make two lists. One list should be all the adjectives that best describe you; (i.e. organized, salesperson, closer, number oriented, detailed, etc.)

The other list should contain all the things you think you are good at. Then ask five people close to you to answer the same questions about you. Compare the lists. The answers that are on your list that most match the descriptions by other people are probably the most accurate of who you really are. The ones that have no matches are things you need to reconsider if they truly are "you".

If there are things on multiple lists that match and none on your list, you also need to consider that as strength that you may not have thought you had. Do not be fooled that you are master of all things. No one is. The trick is to have a crystal clear (and honest) view of who you are.


5. Find the people to fill in the gaps to your list - your talent pool.

Now that you have an objective look at who you are and what your good at, you need to start finding people with the skill sets you are missing to join your team. Unfortunately, many times like people attract like people and in the case of a business building this does your idea a disservice. You need opposite and a variety of skill sets in order to complete your idea in order to launch with the most chance of success.