Evan Williams, the founder of Blogger, Odeo and Twitter, wrote some time ago about trying to find a more structured way to evaluate product ideas and determine whether they will be successful or not.
It’s a very interesting post, that is really worth reading. Here I’ll be listing the main points, and the main questions you have to ask yourself when evaluating your product, and will leave you to read the details on his blog.
The main points and questions you have to consider in your product / service evaluation are:
Tractability: How difficult will it be to launch a worthwhile version 1.0?
Obviousness: Is it clear why people should use it?
Deepness: How much value can you ultimately deliver?
Wideness: How many people may ultimately use it?
Discoverability: How will people learn about your product?
Monetizability: How hard will it be to extract the money?
Personally Compelling: Do you really want it to exist in the world?
Read the full post in detail here: Will it fly? How to Evaluate a New Product Idea