#7 Rip your startup solution apart (655-7)

Rapid Startup Design Process: Review Steps

Remember, The overall guidance is:

• Go stepwise,
• Don’t dawdle,
• Constantly always ask yourself Is this a dead end?”
• Allow yourself to rethink, backtrack to an earlier step or restart

You want to be the first person to say "this is a dumb idea." It'll be a lot less embarrassing. So stand back and look at the problem, solution, and competition.

First, take the text you have written, copy it into a document, and rewrite every word and sentence as a question starting with

• "Is it really.." 
• "How do I know..." 
• "Can I support the claim" 
• "Am I qualified to ..."

Don't allow anything vague or absolute. A word like "everyone" is a clue that you are are overstating. Excessive emotion like "absolutely" and "essential" are clues that you may be biased.

The Problem: Is this really such a huge problem that people will pay for your solution? Are people really this desperate, unhappy, frustrated, or irritated? Probably not.

The Solution: Admit your weaknesses. Do you really have the resources to do this?

The Competition: Take a good long look at the competition. It's doubtful that they are weak and incapable as you made them out to be.

Sure this is depressing. Your great idea has probably been ripped up.

Inertia will ask you to pick up the pieces and try to put them back together. Don't. This is why you are being rapid. You haven't invested that much time yet. Why waste money and years of effort on a solution that will likely fail?

If there are problems, first write down the lesson you learned. This will help you avoid making the same mistake. Were you too vague? Then outline a strategy for creating a new Startup Design.

For example, if the problem isn't substantial or the competition is too strong, go back to Step #1 and find a different problem to solve or a problem with fewer competitors.

Or if the problem is okay and the competition is weak but the solution is lacking, go back to step #2 and see if there is a better solution. But don't skip past the "rip apart the solution" step the next time... Your next solution may also be poorly conceived or potentially flooded with competitors with similar capability.

Perhaps you lucked out and you have indeed found a solution to a serious problem in a market with few competitors. Onward to the next step!