Is the problem consequential enough to matter?
An opportunity starts with consequence, not novelty. What happens if the customer does nothing? The stronger the operational, financial, regulatory or strategic consequence, the more likely a problem can support real purchasing behaviour.
Can you reach the person who can change the outcome?
Users, champions, budget owners, security teams and procurement can all be different people. “The market is large” is not a route to a customer. A venture needs a credible path into the buying system.
Why are you unusually well positioned to win?
Domain knowledge is useful when it changes speed, access or judgment. Customer trust, proprietary data, distribution, workflow knowledge, technology or infrastructure can all matter—but only if they are difficult for competitors to reproduce.
What has the customer actually given up?
The strength of evidence rises as the customer gives up something real. The point is not to chase the strongest signal immediately; it is to know what the current signal can and cannot prove.
What is the smallest credible product that can change the decision?
A minimum product is not a miniature version of the eventual company. It is an instrument for resolving a commercially important uncertainty. Fidelity should be spent where the customer’s decision depends on it.
How does the first wedge reach a buyer repeatedly?
Distribution is not a later growth problem. Customer access, channel leverage, ecosystem position and existing trust can materially change the economics of a venture from day one.
What would make you proceed, change or stop?
Good venture work creates the conditions for a real decision. Define the threshold before the experiment where possible. Otherwise teams tend to reinterpret ambiguous activity as progress.
Stopping is not failure when it protects capital and attention from a weak thesis. The goal is not to preserve the original idea. The goal is to find the strongest opportunity supported by evidence.