The checklist, as a file
This is the working copy used on all sixteen ideas listed on this domain, not a trimmed version of one. Three of the ideas were dropped at line 9.
# Idea validation checklist Tick or strike each line. A struck line is a finding, not a failure. ## Before you write anything 1. [ ] I can name one specific person with this problem, including their job and their situation. 2. [ ] I have heard four different people describe the problem using roughly the same phrase. 3. [ ] I can write that phrase down, and it is the phrase people would type into a search box. 4. [ ] I know what they do about it today, described the way they would describe it. 5. [ ] I know roughly what the workaround costs them per month, in hours or money, and I have written the estimate down as an estimate. 6. [ ] I know why the workaround has survived. (It usually survives for a reason.) ## Before you write the page 7. [ ] I have opened the pricing pages of the two nearest incumbents today, and written down the entry price with the date. 8. [ ] I can say in one sentence what they do not do, without using the word "simple". 9. [ ] After lines 7 and 8, the problem is still unsolved. (If it is solved, stop here. This is a good outcome.) 10. [ ] I know where these people already look for answers: a search term, a forum, a group, or a person they ask. 11. [ ] I have written the price down before writing any copy.
idea-validation-checklist.md · markdown · 2.1 kB
- 1.Work through it in order, in one sitting. The value is in reaching line 9 before you have fallen in love with the page you were already writing in your head.
- 2.Strike lines rather than deleting them. A struck line is a decision you made, and in eight weeks you will want to know which ones you skipped and why.
- 3.Line 18 is written before launch and re-read at line 19. That is the whole mechanism; without it, every result reads as encouraging.
The three lines that actually kill ideas
Most of the twenty lines are hygiene. Three of them do the real work, and all three are unpleasant, which is why checklists that get shared widely tend to quietly omit them.
Line 9 — after checking the incumbents, the problem is still unsolved — is the fastest killer and the one people resist most. It requires opening a competitor's pricing page and reading it honestly, which takes eleven minutes and frequently ends the project. Three of the ideas that were going to be on this domain died here: a status page for solo developers, an async standup digest, and a release-notes generator. In all three cases the incumbent was cheaper than the price I had in mind and did more.
Line 17 — the number that means no — is skipped almost universally. Without it, a founder who gets eleven signups in sixty days will find a reading of eleven that justifies continuing, and they will be sincere about it. Writing the failure number down in advance is the only defence against your own creativity, and it costs one sentence.
Line 20 — tell them the answer, including when the answer is no — is the one with an actual price attached. Sending a hundred people an email that says the thing they asked for is not going to exist is genuinely unpleasant. Committing to it in advance is what makes the whole exercise legitimate rather than an email harvest with extra steps.
Where the sixteen ideas on this site stalled
Every idea considered for this project, and the line it got stuck on. Nineteen were considered; sixteen shipped.
| Line it stalled on | Ideas | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Line 9 — incumbent already solves it | 3 | Solo status page, async standup digest, release notes from PRs. All three had a cheaper incumbent doing more. |
| Line 10 — nowhere the buyer looks | 2 | Both were rewritten around a different keyword rather than dropped, after the first draft aimed at a term with no buyers behind it. |
| Line 12 — could not defend the price | 1 | Repriced from $49 to $29 once the sentence had to be written down without adjectives. |
| Nothing — went straight through | 13 | Which is suspicious, and is the honest weakness of a checklist filled in by the person who wrote it. |
Source: Our own log from building this site in August 2026. Full reasoning per idea is in the research notes committed alongside each one.
The last row is the problem with self-administered checklists and there is no clean fix for it. The partial fix used here was to require a competitor price checked on the day, which is a fact rather than a judgement.
The short version, if you will not download anything
Six lines. If you only do these, you have most of the value.
- Write down the phrase four different people usedIn their words. This is your headline and your search term, and you cannot invent it.
- Open two competitor pricing pages today and write down the numbersWith the date. Memory and listicles are both wrong more often than you would expect.
- Write the price before the copyCopy written first will produce a number that flatters the copy rather than the arithmetic.
- Publish one thing that is useful without the productA calculator, a comparison, a template. This is what brings strangers in. The pitch never does.
- Write down the number that means noSomewhere you will see it in sixty days, and not in your head where it can be revised downward quietly.
- Promise, in writing, to report the outcomeIncluding the failure. This is what separates an experiment from a list-building exercise.
Questions about using it
Why is there no email gate on the download?
Does this work for services and consulting, not just software?
How long does the whole thing take?
What if I fail line 9 — the incumbent already does it?
The checklist, applied fifteen times, in public
Every idea on this domain has its research notes committed next to it, including the ones where the reasoning is thin.