The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You need the riskiest assumptions in your idea and cheap ways to test them.
- {{idea}}
- {{target_customer}}
- {{price}}
- {{evidence_so_far}}
- {{test_budget}}
Full prompt and why it works
Prompt
Pressure-test my business idea before I spend money on it. I want the assumptions most likely to sink it and cheap ways to test each one in the next few weeks, so that I can decide whether to go ahead, change the idea or drop it. Act as a skeptical, fair adviser, not a cheerleader. The idea: """ {{idea}} """ Who I think the customer is: {{target_customer}} What I would charge: {{price}} What I have already learned or tested: {{evidence_so_far}} Money and time I can spend on testing: {{test_budget}} Work through it in this order: 1. Assumptions: every assumption the idea depends on, in four groups. Customers have this problem and care enough to act; they will pay my price; I can reach them at a reasonable cost; I can deliver at a cost that leaves a profit. 2. Riskiest five: the five assumptions that are both most uncertain and most damaging if wrong, ranked, with one sentence on why for each. 3. Tests: for each of the five, one cheap test that fits my budget. Say what to do, with how many people or for how long, and the result that counts as a pass, decided before the test runs. For example: "Put up a one-page offer with a deposit button and send it to 40 people who fit the customer description. Pass: at least 4 pay the deposit." Each test should be cheap, quick and judged by a number rather than a feeling. 4. Verdict: which test to run first, and what result should make me stop. Format: numbered sections with the headings above, with the five tests in a table with the columns Assumption, Test, Cost and time, Pass if. About 400 to 600 words. Prefer tests where people commit money, time or a signature over surveys that ask "Would you buy this?", because people are polite about ideas and honest with their wallets. Do not count praise from friends and family as evidence. Do not invent market sizes, statistics or facts about competitors; if a test needs a figure I have not given, say what to look up and where. If my description is too vague to name the customer or the price, say so first and ask the two questions that would make the idea testable.
Variables
- {{idea}}
- The idea in a few sentences: what you would sell, to whom, and how.
- {{target_customer}}
- Who you think will buy, as specifically as you can, for example "owners of older homes who rent them out".
- {{price}}
- What you would charge, or a range if you are unsure.
- {{evidence_so_far}}
- Conversations, pre-orders, sales or research so far. "Nothing yet" is fine.
- {{test_budget}}
- For example "$300 and four weekends".
Why it works
- What good looks like. Each test has a pass mark set before it runs, so a weak result cannot be talked up afterward.
- What to avoid. Commitments such as deposits count as evidence and polite praise does not, which is the difference between testing an idea and seeking reassurance.
- If unsure. An idea too vague to test gets two sharpening questions first, instead of a confident analysis of nothing in particular.