MUST READ: The sacred “IF”s of idea generation and prototyping
If you can’t get it out in one sentence, you cant get it out to profit.
If it’s difficult to understand, it will be difficult to sell.
If it isn’t doing one thing really well, it won’t do anything really well.
If it is not yet tested, it should not yet be trusted.
If it challenges the existing culture of the users, it will challenge the financial strength of the investors.
If it enables its users to be something good they are not, it may be a unicorn.
If the end users will use it more than 3 times a day, give it your best shot.
If it will involve marketers advertising to users, it will be a long drawn out battle to profit.
If it will involve people selling all sorts of items, another long battle.
If the majority users come to your platform to request for another platform for which it was not intended, consider pivoting soonest.
If they are walking away after using it once, you are not making a great first impression.
If the founder has done past failed or successful projects similar to the new one, give the founder another chance.
If the numbers don’t support it, don’t support it either. Numbers tell the true story, at least most times.
If it scares you, start today and start very small.
If its too good to be true, get more data on it.
If its all working well, persist.
If you are growing faster than you can scale, control the growth not the scaling.
If its clever but not creative, it won’t solve the problem in a useful way, ditch it.
If you don’t have the resources to implement it, form a partnership soonest.
If time is a constraint, logic is more important than interface design, get that sorted out first.
If you want to test an idea, development time is a huge investment, choose your time wisely.
If it fails at the idea stage don’t proceed with it out of love and passion unless it hasn’t failed on your own paper.
If users have a hard time learning how to use it, you may have to take another look at the interface.
If your users are not telling their friends about it, it will cost you lots of money doing that assignment for them.
And If it doesn’t work on paper, it wont work in practice. However, this may not always be true the other way round.
[provided the author’s name is included, permission is hereby granted to anyone to use this publication anywhere — walls of offices, publications etc]
