Ask HN: How to know when an idea is worth pursuing? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to know when an idea is worth pursuing?

28 pointsiio715 comments

I have often found myself annoyed because of ideas that I never manage to pursue, sometimes because of a lack of time or money or honest interest, but they still resonate in the back of my mind causing minor stress.

Then again other ideas I manage to pursue, but for some reason or another find out they weren't so good after all and time is wasted, with the exception if I learn something useful in the process.

What is a good way to determine whether an idea is a good idea worth pursuing before actually doing too much about it?

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My approach is always like:

- Donate 40 hours to that idea. Doesn't matter the goal. - During this 40 hours evaluate the following: - Feasibility - Long term goal. - Team needed it. - Create a score card (2x2 concept here positivexnegative, fastxslow). - Explore ideas for it(Design thinking approach here). - Explore the feedback from people you know. - Now that you have spent 38 hours. Use the last 2 hours to pitch and collect from other people that you don't know and pitch the idea, and place in the score card.

If you have enough evidence (data) you can discover insights (analysis) to peruse or not not. If you still have other areas to cover, I will limit the cut off time to 100 hours.

That's how I discover if ideas are worth my actions.

Well, there's many factors to consider, any of which could make the idea, worthwhile or not:

- The market, a new type of buggy whip might not have much demand anymore [1].

- The investment for an MVP, building a rocket for mars is a great idea but may take millions of dollars and years of time.

- The competition, creating a new Search Engine is a great idea, but the field is dominated by big powerful companies like; Google & Bing...

- The novelty, a new JavaScript framework work web apps must be pretty different to attract much attention these days.

- Your expertise, creating a new baby toy with no knowledge of babies may turn out terribly.

- Your passion, if the idea doesn't excite you, then it's probably not worth dedicating your time to.

Passion is probably the most influential factor in my opinion, because it should keep you motivated when things get tough.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/10digi.html

It's amazing how many people e stumble across the Ask HN and manage to navigate the sign-up-and-post procedure but fail to grasp how Google works. Here's some suggested search terms "mvp" , "proof of concept", "how do I validate my idea", or perhaps "is there anyone out there who can help me Google"?

Yup... as if somehow there's a magic answer for some of the most general questions and it's hiding in the YC crowdsourced brain.

If you had to ask that question, you need to take 5 steps back and watch YC's startup videos, read PG's essays, learn a thing or two about understanding markets and research your idea to see if it has been validated by others. Sitting around and pondering if something is a good idea without a plan or understanding what value is being created is no good.

Take action: research, build MVPs, talk to people (your end users / potential customers). The only ones that can validate your idea are your end users / customers.

Focus on building something users want or need and build it so well that once they use it, they can't go back to their normal without it. Monetization comes after your prove there's a demand for your product. You can fantasize all you want about how to make money off an idea, but if no one wants to use your product, it doesn't matter.

> It's amazing how many people e stumble across the Ask HN and manage to navigate the sign-up-and-post procedure but fail to grasp how Google works.

That's 100% unhelpful, unkind snark. I see from your recent comment history you've a habit of responding meanly to questions you don't think are good. Please stop doing that.

Adam, the value of a community is somewhat diminished, in my opinion, if it's encouraged to lazily throw your problems up in the air and yell "does anyone know the answer to my question" before they've made even a cursory attempt to research or solve the problem themselves. Why on earth pollute a forum with more noise?

All totally beside the point. No-one suggested "encouraging" questions you don't think are worthy. Flag them. But writing the horrible way you did has no place on HN or anywhere. It's not much good what you say being 100% valid if how you say is revolting and breaks every possible guideline. It may have been a bad question, but it was far, far better than your comment.

Also, nobody bothers searching the existing archive of discussions to see if their question has already been answered. This particular one has been discussed ad nauseam.

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=validate+idea

Horrible, cynical reply.

I highly recommend you post your ideas somewhere - not necessarily here - but somewhere you can get feedback on the idea. Ideas can't be copyrighted, only implementations, so you don't loose anything by putting it out there and you can bend the ear of real industry professionals to validate it.

It depends on your goals - if you are pursuing it for a business, you need to validate that there is a market, and a monetization path. If you are doing it as a mission-driven project, you need to evaluate what already exists to fulfill that mission, and determine if your efforts will add to the solutions, or if you should be collaborating with existing groups. Or if this is purely a personal project, then it is all about your own prioritization of your own time and energy.

Tell us more about what kinds of projects you are thinking of, and I'm sure more detailed answers can be provided.

That is a good idea to pursue. The idea that the value of an idea can be figured out before too much time is wasted on it.

Then again nothing is every truly wasted when you pursue what brings you joy.

I guess there are two ways. 1. Listen to your gut and be passionate about it. If you truly believe in your idea, you won't give up that easily. Even if you do, you won't feel bad about wasting that time. At least you tried and no "what-ifs" will ever haunt you. 2. Do some research. If you are a more practical type of person, explore your idea from every angle. Collect the data and analyze the potential. If you ask me, my personal approach is the first one.

1) Validate that people are willing to pay something for the benefit you would provide, or 2) validate that the benefit would help the people you want to help, and it's a pain they acutely feel

When it consumes you is the metric I use. That method is not without major caveats of course.

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