3 Steps to Vetting Your Idea

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

This article originally appeared on Inc. in July, 2024. You can see it here, and you can see more of my writing for Inc. right here.

I often say, “Ideas are everything. Ideas are nothing.”  

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The execution matters more. However, no amount of execution can save a bad idea. As an app developer, I work closely with my clients to hone and refine their ideas into products that know their purpose and serve their users.  

The best ideas often come from non-technical founders, from people who deeply understand the problem at hand. Yet these founders are often plagued by doubt and second-guess themselves at every turn. 

So how do you know your idea is good, and that you should be the one to pursue it? Follow these three steps. 

Step 1: Are you at an unfair advantage?  

Odds are, you aren’t the first one to come up with your idea. If you’re starting on second or third base in executing this idea, that’s a good sign.  

Maybe you have some insider knowledge of the problem, connections within the industry, or prior experience. You don’t just have a notion of the idea, but of how to bring it to reality. You may feel an almost scary degree of alignment.  

For example, I have a vision for highly secure personal AI…but I’m not best positioned to build it. I don’t have enough experience in blockchain or that particular brand of deep tech. So instead, I’m on the hunt for people already building it, or who are on third base and could build it, and I’m supporting them.  

I have a different idea for custom books for children learning to read. I’m well positioned for that because I have a technical team that can easily build the infrastructure; I’ve already written and published for children and had some success; and I’m a mother of a child learning to read, so I know the landscape well.  

Sure, there are lots of moms out there, and lots of children’s book authors too, but how many of them also have a senior-level AI dev team at their fingertips? I don’t have strong direct-to-consumer marketing chops, but I just happened to meet someone who does and wants to partner with me on this. So this idea is, so far, a green light for me.  

Step 2: Gather signals

If your idea passes step 1, it’s time to start taking action. Take baby steps in many directions. Dig into your product positioning, potential pricing, and a high-level sketch of your business model. Gather data points. Play around with iterations. Hold your idea lightly and loosely.  

Also talk to people about it. But be careful.  

Be selective about who you talk to, and know in your own mind exactly what you need from them. And be real about the biases they bring to the table. This allows you to take their advice for what it’s actually worth, without assuming that advice is wiser than your own inner voice.  

It can be instinctual to outsource judgment to someone else. But no one else is in your shoes. While you can always take input, know that other people can’t, as Glennon Doyle says, give you directions to a place they’ve never been.  

Step 3: Is this an idea, or is it a knowing? 

External signals can certainly be wrong. Take Slack. A lot of people had a hard time believing that Slack was a smart thing to build. On paper, it’s not unique. But in its execution, it is. Slack’s creators knew that, even when external signals told them otherwise.  

In this step, take stock internally.  

Is this idea values-aligned? Will it help enable the life you want? Will it help you grow in a direction you want to go in? Even if you’re intimidated, do you feel called to pursue this idea?  

If your idea passes this step, then it’s time to follow your gut and take a leap of faith.  

Good luck, bad luck, nobody knows. 

As you move forward, continue to hold things lightly if you can, and remember this Zen Koan, one of my favorites for life and entrepreneurship. 

One day, a farmer wakes up to find his horse has run away. “How terrible,” his neighbor says, to which the farmer replies, “Good luck, bad luck, nobody knows.” 

A few days later, the horse comes back, and it brings another horse. “What good fortune!” the neighbor says, to which the farmer replies, “Good luck, bad luck, nobody knows.” 

The farmer gives the extra horse to his son, but the horse bucks the son off, and he breaks his leg. “How terrible,” the neighbor says, to which the farmer replies, “Good luck, bad luck, nobody knows.”  

War breaks out in the province, and all able-bodied young men are drafted to fight. Because of his injury, the farmer’s son is spared. “What good fortune!” the neighbor says, to which the farmer replies, “Good luck, bad luck, nobody knows.”  

This parable reminds me of my first company, a direct-to-consumer wellness app. That idea was a knowing for me. I said yes to it, and I moved toward it. Though it saw some success, it ultimately didn’t work out. I reached a point where I didn’t want to continue building that particular product or business.  

But it led me to, and perfectly positioned me for, what I’m doing with WLCM now, which I’ve been doing successfully for almost 15 years, and which I never would have predicted. 

When I talk to people in the midst of vetting their idea, their perceptions of success and failure can be rigid. I believe that even if the idea doesn’t pan out, it won’t mean you never should have pursued it. Because pursuing it still leads you farther down the path you’re supposed to be on, even (or perhaps especially) if it’s a path you didn’t expect.  

If you’re working from a place of knowing, you can’t go wrong.