Got a Big Idea? How to Evaluate Your Innovation for Success
While we can’t see into the future (yet), we can use a set of metrics to evaluate which ideas are likely to be game changers and which will just fizzle away into the world of 8-track tapes, CueCats (remember those?) and Segways. Take a page from the late Ohio State University Professor Everett Rodgers (who coined the term “early adopter”) and consider these questions:
What is the product’s relative advantage compared with the marketplace? If your idea has a clear positive advantage over the existing marketplace, people will try it.
How compatible is the product with the status quo? Being too ahead of our time or current infrastructure will hinder marketplace adoption.
How complex is the idea? If a layman can’t understand its value or grasp a new paradigm, you may struggle to achieve mass adoption.
How easy is it to test your product? If you can’t test out your idea on a small scale without the resources of Elon Musk or Apple,