Opportunity Identification for the 99% (4): Final Screen Before Spending Real Money

6 min readOct 9, 2015

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These posts are for the benefit of 99% of the entrepreneurs, who are not appropriate for and will never access Venture Capital.

I find that their minds have been screwed up by partial knowledge of the success creation process propagated by VC’s and their followers.

This Opportunity Identification process is designed for people who have more smarts than money and want to eliminate most of the failures before they launch their boat. These steps also prepares them to attract the right investors and negotiate from a position of relative strength.

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Previous Posts in the Series:

Opportunity Identification for 99%(1): Looking for a Needle in a Haystack

I posited that Innovation = Ideation X Implementation

and

Covered the role and process of Ideation with the first 2 steps:

Raw Ideas: Generation of lots of Ideas, and
Selecting Key Ideas: from among those numerous Ideas.

Opportunity Identification for the 99% (2): Screening Key Ideas

Opportunity Identification for the 99% (3): Further Screening for My Opportunity

We went further down the path of the Rubric of Innovation by screening these Key Ideas and, through three cuts, narrowed them down on the path to identifying our Opportunity.

Final Screen:

Final Review. Extracting good elements from failed ideas.

In the previous screens we give qualitative thought to a broad spectrum of critical issues that affect the success of a new venture. Of course, before the idea becomes a business, we will need quantitative answers to these very questions and more. Those would be needed for any Plan that we put down for our team as well as investors.

But, before starting that process, we need one more reality check.

Does all this fit together? and,

We take one last look at the key ideas that were rejected in the third cut. After all, any idea that reaches as far as the third cut has survived comprehensive, if not rigorous examination. It has earned enough respect not to be dismissed too lightly. But at the end either an opportunity is in or it is out.

Clearly the opportunities that emerge from the third cut will have many issues that are very desirable to pursue. They will have many elements that look good and several that are gaping holes. Instead of simply tossing them aside we can do one of several things:

Reconsider them again.
Find ways of using the positive aspects of those rejects in those opportunities that have crossed the Fourth cut.
Use creativity techniques to morph the problem.

The goal at this step is to squeeze all the positive elements out of the idea that is about to be rejected as well as to enhance the already strong ones. Some new and “morphed” idea may emerge as well, ready to go back in the hopper for Q $64K.

Final Review

Fit Issues

a. Do the elements Fit together?

b. Who else can help us in pulling it off?

c. How can we enhance the weak elements?

d. What else can we do to minimize downside risk?

Extraction from Other Ideas

a. What other products/ services can be added?

b. What elements from other ideas, that failed, can be added?

Test Issues

a. How can we pilot the program?

b. Best place to test? Why?

c. How will we know that the test is successful?

d. How will we know when to de-commit?

(Ready to continue to move towards a MVP and complete the Business Plan?)

After the Cuts:

What next? After all what we have are still- ideas. They have a long way to go before they are ready for consuming resources. But all this scrutiny has served a vital purpose.

Purpose is to Identify and Cover Holes:

This process is refining the process of creating new ventures. We learn to improve the quality of ideas that are coming in for consideration as well as in the future for enhancements. We also spot flaws earlier and make well balanced assessments at an earlier stage.

Instead of focusing our earliest efforts on selling the idea by pushing the most interesting aspects of the idea, it focuses our attention on the ideas weakest, least attractive points and helps us to strengthen them. The overall quality of opportunity is substantially enhanced by improving the weak points rather than polishing further the strong points.

In a sense, the Idea to Opportunity process can end in one of two ways: a death sentence or a birth announcement. Actually, there are no dead ideas, only ideas whose timing or the team behind it is wrong. An idea, not pursued now, may emerge again at a more opportune time, or as an element of a new idea. But inevitably, at the end of the process, there will be winners and non-winners.

Extract All the Learning from “Rejected” Ideas:

When ideas fail on paper, we should give it a decent send-off by extracting whatever learning is worthwhile and feeding a few of the modified ideas back into the system.

My Opportunity:

At this stage, the process of Ideation has delivered our Opportunity with the weak points identified.

Presentation Template:

I suggest we extract a template, just replace the instructions under each heading with our own description of this particular opportunity. Keep the information brief. The result will be a one page summary we can use to acquaint others with the concept during the early stages of the implementation journey. The people who may be interested are team members, supporters, mentors and investors.

Title

Clear and descriptive enough to accurately identify the opportunity for someone coming in cold.

Brief Description

The speech that communicates the essence of the idea in the time it takes to ride an elevator.

Detailed Description

A more complete description, with emphasis on why the concept is an opportunity. This is part two of the elevator speech-the answer you’d give if asked “Tell me more”. Try to incorporate answers to key questions: What will we make or sell? Who is the customer? Can we win?, etc.

Background

Summarize any relevant information that has been developed using the Opportunity Screening Guide. A common tool is the Business Model Canvas.

Challenges

Summarize the most significant unanswered questions. Key technical, business or marketing issues? The major risks/ The unknowns? In articulating them, you may find someone who can be of help.

Contacts

List names and contact information for people who may want to support the idea, potential customers, resources, investors?

Next Step: Implementation

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“Every good idea sooner or later degenerates into hard work.”― Calvin Trillin

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Now the hard work begins. Further analysis is not going to improve the quality of the opportunity. Only actual implementation will give us further clues and insights.

We are ready to begin Implementing our Opportunity!

Those of you who are interested in a complete checklist- Opportunity Screening Guide that covers all the steps, from Idea to Key Idea to the four Screens, please write to me and I will send you a copy.