Ideation
Phase Goal
Identify a high-leverage opportunity where available data can solve a real, repeated problem for a specific audience.
Core Formula: Data + Real Demand
A strong microproduct idea combines two conditions:
- Data availability: you can obtain data with enough quality and continuity to power useful outputs.
- Demand clarity: a user group has a recurring problem and values the output enough to adopt it.
Ideation Decision Gates
Use these gates as a go/no-go filter:
- Data accessibility: Can you reliably access and maintain the required inputs?
- Problem demand and audience clarity: Is the problem frequent, painful, and tied to a defined segment?
- Addressable vs emerging market test: Is there a known market, or a plausible early wedge where value can be proven?
- N-of-one utility test: Would at least one real user adopt this output now?
Required Artifact: Problem Brief
Create a one-page brief containing:
- Target user and workflow pain.
- Data inputs, constraints, and known gaps.
- Output utility and measurable success metric.
- Go/no-go criteria for entering architecture and implementation planning.
Contributor Expansion Areas
- Opportunity scoring frameworks and example scorecards.
- Interview and validation playbooks for early demand testing.
- Case studies of successful and failed ideation patterns.