You sure about that scale? It doesn't seem particularly hard to check off 10 items off that list. I tried a previous failed idea, an idea I didn't follow up on yet and an idea I'm currently working on and got 8, 10 and 12 respectively, skipping some items I don't have an answer for.

I mean I would consider all three of those good ideas, but I definitely wouldn't call them brilliant.

What were the 12 that you ticked off? I would love to see an idea that hit 12 of them - I can’t think of an idea in history that has hit 12 if you mark fairly.

From my conversations with people about this list there seems to be quite a divergence in how people are marking off if their idea meets a criteria or not. For example, people consider that their idea is not easy to replicate because someone like them could not easily replicate it, not what a well resourced team could do. It is very hard to find an idea that can not be easily replicated with the right resources. I should do a follow up post on how to do this so you don’t fool yourself into think your idea is better than it really is.

1, 3, 4, 5, 15, 17, 18, 19¹, 20, 23, 24, 25

¹ Arguably uncertain about this one so willing to bring it down to 11.

I can see some flaws in this list though. For one thing, anyone who ticks 1 will also tick 23 for example. 16 ("Is 100x better than any current product or service.") is also very subjective.

I didn't tick "Cannot be easily replicated" and, for the reasons you mentioned, that's essentially untickable. Google cannot be easily replicated, but that's because Google's been around a decade.

Please do a follow up because I'm working on an idea that hits 19 of the points you list.

Last year me a 2 of my friends sat down in a pub one night and did a brainstorming session for me (IT ideas) and 1 of the others (a writer - so story/article ideas).

We were trying to do the 100-10-1 process. Harder than it looks, but me and my other friend got 50 ideas each. Then over the next 2 days whittled it down to 5 ideas each to start work on. The 1 idea I am now concentrating on hits 19 of you points, and I am actually quite excited about it, especially as I will be the first power user, it scratches an itch for me.

I would like to see your list passed around some other successful people to see what they would add, and whether or not more items could be added, maybe including some negative items (ie if the idea hits this, minus a point from the score) . Then think about what the real number of points needed for a good idea should be. I am going to look back over my brainstorming list now and see how some of the other ideas score on you list.

Thanks for putting it together!

I will do a follow up and flesh out the criteria in more depth so that everyone is on the same page. I use this list to judge my (and other people’s) ideas, so I know what each criteria means, but as this thread has showed there must be quite a divergence between my judgement and others.

I would certainly love to talk to anyone about their ideas if they are meeting 19 off the list! Very impressive.

social media thing (just assume it's this.cm. Mine is an experiment and I don't plan on making money on):

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7¹, 8, 9, 10², 11, 12², 14, 15, 16

¹ not counted, as I'm not the first mover

² debatable

edit: I don't think my Idea is an easy opportunity to make money because of the network effect (which ironically makes tick a few of the points), making it hard to gain critical mass. And It's also hard because of the existing, well defended, monopolies and big players.

I am surprised that you consider a social media opportunity can be bootstrapped (i.e hits point 1). Has there ever been a successful social media company that has not required outside funding?

I think I really need to flesh these checklists out more.

As said, this is a research experiment I'm doing, not aiming at necessary success.

Absolute minimum to at least do some qualitative analysis would be 30 active and connected users (my friends that I could talk to) using it for a month or so.

I'm doing it because the problems are hard and interesting. I'm writing my diploma about the general thing.

I am not criticising you - I am criticising myself for not making these criteria more explicit. If I had better explained what I meant by 1 for example then you would not have thought that your idea was bootstrapable.

Good luck with the diploma.

ah right, thanks :)

I'm inclined to agree.

I've seen a couple of instances of idea theft reasonably up close with a previous employer where a couple of companies (that I know about) stole not just the product ideas, but substantially replicated the business model as well.

The key point here is that the theft was of ideas that had already been turned into successful products or businesses in their own right. I've never seen an instance where somebody stole an idea that hadn't already been realised successfully; I'm sure it happens, but I reckon it's pretty rare.

I think unrealised business ideas, even those that turn out to be hugely successful, often don't sound that compelling unless you're personally invested in them already. Hence people don't tend to steal them.

On the other hand, if something is already successful that can significantly derisk, or reduce the perception of risk, involved in attempting it yourself, and therefore might make it more appealing to copy.

So, yes, I agree, where brilliant equates to demonstrably successful.

Obviously if something is too well established, or your potential competitors massively overmatch you in terms of talent or resources, this argument falls apart. There's probably some combination of optimal scale/adoption/market awareness/penetration/maturity, etc., that makes this more viable. In a consolidated market copying would almost certainly be a terrible idea.

Strictly speaking, I don't believe in "Good" vs. "Bad" ideas, because ultimately those are opinion until tested by the market. A much better measure (which you do touch upon without saying directly) is feasibility:

I blogged about this: http://soundingboard.tv/good-bad-idea/

This is what I get when I visit your blog: "This request has been denied for security reasons. If you believe this was in error, please contact support."

My idea checks the following: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25.

Ideas are so cheap people get distracted with lesser ones.