Business Idea Evaluation with The Product Opportunity Assessment

Want to know if your idea is worth pursuing? There are lots ways to determine this. Marty Cagan, author of Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love, outlines a lightweight method he calls the Product Opportunity Assessment. This document’s goal is to determine whether or not a particular product opportunity is worth pursuing.

Here is what goes into a Product Opportunity Assessment.

1. Value Proposition: Exactly what problem will this solve?
2. Target Market: For whom do you solve that problem?
3. Market Size: How big is the opportunity?
4. Metrics/Revenue Strategy: How will you measure success?
5. Competitive Landscape: What alternatives are out there now?
6. Differentiator: Why are you best suited to pursue this?
7. Market Window: Why now?
8. Go-to-Market Strategy: How will you get this product to the market?
9. Solution Requirements: What factors are critical to success?
10. Go or No-Go: Given the above, what’s the recommendation?

This sounds like a method entrepreneurs can use as well. It’s meant to be fairly basic, yet comprehensive. While it may not replace a full business plan for a VC presentation, seeing all of these factors spelled out and help you decide on your next product or business idea.