1. What’s the real issue? (define domain problem area)
2. What are you trying to accomplish?
3. Who is your customer?
4. What does your customer consider value?
5. What specification must the solution meet?
6. What are the minimum results required?
7. What are the risks?
8. How are you going to make money?
9. How is the competition in similar fields doing?
10. Which of their current “noncustomers” should you be doing business with?

Usually people think they have the idea all figured out but when it comes to answering the really basic questions they start to discover that their answers are vague and really unspecific.

I find that helping others evaluate their ideas most of the time means forcing them to think harder about their own ideas.

In my opinion all the debt advice, “start small and ugly”, “release often release early” and all the rest of the “Getting Real” type of advice comes after you validate a business idea.

I’ll definitely be getting out and talking to some of the people that my ideas might help in the next few days.

Thanks again.