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Ask HN: How to pair down from too many ideas to the one(s) to pursue?

8 pointsby willart4foodover 5 years ago
I understand and practice "Brainstorming" and I understand and practice "Minimum Viable Product"; but how to narrow down to 1 or a few ideas when one has too many ideas and all seem viable enough?

8 comments

yesenadamover 5 years ago
An idea adapted from a great talk[0] I watched yesterday: sort ideas by <i>how much you&#x27;d learn</i> doing them.<p>I think in the talk they added new features not in order of cost vs benefit but by how much they&#x27;d learn, or how much they&#x27;d need to learn to do it. Because what they&#x27;d learn implementing #1 would probably totally change the rest of the &#x27;features to add&#x27; list, and how they&#x27;d add them.<p>[0] the weebly guy on product market fit <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=0LNQxT9LvM0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=0LNQxT9LvM0</a>
dsaavyover 5 years ago
Just an idea that I haven’t done myself or heard of anyone doing.<p>Randomly select 3 of your viable ideas. Put up 3 static sites with some marketing materials and&#x2F;or “demos” without actually building anything.<p>Market them a little with word of mouth, social media, a few dollars of paid ads, cold emails, etc.<p>The one that gets the most pre-sales in a week or month or some timeframe is the one you build. Refund all of the other ones if they have pre-sales.
billconanover 5 years ago
I used to think I have lots of ideas until I met with VCs. They only invest in potentially big business. Now I have no good ideas.
DrNukeover 5 years ago
I would pursue the one in the applied field I’m both a real expert (domain knowledge) and a capable practitioner (market knowledge)?
lookingforsomeover 5 years ago
List out all ideas and plot them in a quadrant of effort and impact. Do the lowest effort, large impact items first.
quaquaqua1over 5 years ago
Choose the one that stands the greatest chance of succeeding, however you define success :)
FroshKillerover 5 years ago
*pare
lecheminover 5 years ago
Something that&#x27;s worked for me is learning to develop and trust my intuition.