Problem Score — from "The Problem" to "Viable Business Model"

Here is how companies fail: a founder has a flash of insight — the world has a Problem. Potential customers agree the Problem is real (they're right!). The founder builds a product that truly solves it (it does!). And then sales never materialize, and the company shuts down within a couple of years. Solving a real problem is — perhaps surprisingly — not nearly enough to build a successful company. Between "real problem" and "viable business" sit seven conditions, and founders systematically over-rate themselves on all of them. This skill scores those conditions honestly, one specific target market at a time; the user walks away with a scorecard, a directional verdict, and either a niche that rescues the idea or the clear-eyed conclusion — far cheaper now than in two years — that it isn't viable.

The mental model

A series of "ands" — why the scores multiply