Ideation
When to Use This Module
Use this module during Phase 1 (Frame) when you need to validate whether a microproduct idea is worth pursuing. It helps you identify high-leverage opportunities where available data can solve a real, repeated problem for a specific audience.
Key Decisions
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 Artifacts
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.
Pitfalls
- Starting with a tool or dataset instead of a user decision.
- Skipping the N-of-one test and building for a hypothetical audience.
- Treating ideation as a one-time step instead of revisiting gates as you learn.
Contribute Here
The following topics are open contribution areas:
- Opportunity scoring frameworks and example scorecards.
- Interview and validation playbooks for early demand testing.
- Case studies of successful and failed ideation patterns.
Next Step
Continue to Design to shape the product, or Architecture to pick a system baseline.