In the previous article, we presented some tools to help you start your project with confidence. In this one, we are going to propose 10 questions that will help you evaluate the potential of your idea on a market. The 10 questions are inspired by the book “The Personal MBA” by Josh Kaufmann. You can also find them in the book “faire“.
Questions to evaluate a potential market
For each of the 10 questions, you must spontaneously give a number of points between 0 and 10 (don’t forget to write them down somewhere). At the end, you add up the total of the points you gave. You can then analyze the situation and make decisions accordingly.
1. Urgency
How well does your solution meet an immediate need or desire of the people?
2. Market size
How many people are willing to purchase your proposed solution? How many people will benefit from your solution?
3. Possible price
What is the highest price a typical buyer would be willing to pay for a solution to their problem/need?
4. Cost to acquire a customer
How easy is it to get a new customer? On average, how much will you invest – in terms of money, time and energy – to generate a sale?
5. Cost to produce value
How much do you estimate the cost of creating value, to deliver it in terms of time, money and energy?
6. Originality of the offer
How unique is your offering compared to the competition’s existing offerings, and how easy is it for your competitors to copy you?
7. Speed to market
How quickly can you create your solution?
8. Initial investment
How much will you have to invest before your solution is ready for sale?
9. Potential for additional sales
Could you make related sales to the offer you provide to your customers?
10. Persistence potential
Once you’ve created your initial offer, how much more work will you have to put into it to keep selling it?
What about now? Is your idea a good fit for the market?
Normally, you now have a point total between 0 and 100 points (if not go back to the beginning of the article, there was a misunderstanding). It is time to analyze the result and choose a fate for your idea. You can refer to this scale to determine if your project corresponds to a potential market.
Of course, this scale is only an indication, you are free to analyze your answers in different ways.
If this exercise has allowed you to better understand the needs of the market corresponding to your idea, don’t hesitate to get the book “faire“, co-authored by Sedat Adiyaman, founder and CEO of think2make. An inspiring book that will help you go deeper into your project thanks to theory but also, and especially, thanks to other exercises that will help you ask yourself the right questions at the different stages of your project.