A bit of Bullsh!t Bingo and a Concept to Share Early Project Ideas

Based on a simple template with qualifying questions and a visual to reach experts and like-minded people and ask for feedback and suggestions.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Are you up for a round of startu bingo? Here we go:

• Target Audience
• Prototyping
• Design thinking
• User testing
• Stakeholder analysis
• User persona profile
• Soft launch
• MVP, USP, CTA, OKR, HMW…, and the list goes on.

I have used at least 6 of the above buzzwords or acronyms in messages and conversations over the last 7 days.

Inspired by Aerek Szulc and his idea to focus on MPV instead of MVP I started to do some research and came across a Forbes article that highlights that over 70% of startup founders eventually realize that their intellectual property is not a competitive advantage.

Why I’m Switching from MVP to MPV

It made me think about some of the projects that I have worked on and especially ideas that I haven’t shared or processed yet.

Why I hesitate to share early ideas

Mainly because I feel it is too early to share and I don’t know with whom to share it for feedback. And occasionally I feel precious about the idea and intellectual property.

At the same time, I have written on Medium for some time now and noticed that there are many users who inspire me and share the same passion and interests. Many have special expertise in a field that I would like to explore and learn from. And people who meet me know that I am all about collaboration and co-creation. Generally, I believe that it’s always better to share an idea instead of keeping it to yourself in order to process it and grow.

Here is the idea

People can share early-stage ideas in an article like this to see what people think, gather feedback and perhaps find a way to collaborate and co-create to bring some of them to the next level.

Here are some examples from my current list of brainstorming ideas and early projects which I aim to add into a format and share for insights, inspiration, and feedback:

1. A card game for families based on outdoor activities and locations to make a joint decision for “What shall we do today?”
2. A support group or movement to inspire people to go outside every day for mental health and well-being.
3. A research project to analyze the success factors of partnership projects across different organizations and case studies.

What it could look like

I am a fan of forms and templates to make them easy and reusable. So my first step with this article is to find a structure to outline the idea and collect feedback. I like the Strategyzer canvas and tools like Asana and have used various value proposition templates with product marketing and project teams over the years. However, I am sure there are templates or recommendations that I am not aware of which could fit really well here.

Describing the idea

Here are a few questions based on the Strategyzer Business Model Canvas that should help to explain the idea to a reader and potential expert or supporter.

1. Describe the idea in max. 240 characters
2. How might we [Action] [What] for [Stakeholder] in order to [what change]?
3. Which different customer segments or classes will be targeted?
4. Who is the main target audience?
5. Through what channels does the target audience want to be reached?
6. Which channels work best?
7. Who are potential key partners?
8. What are the motivations for the partnerships? What are their interests?
9. What key activities does the idea require to be successful?
10. What key resources does the project idea require? These are considered assets and they are needed to sustain and support the idea..
11. What core value does the idea deliver to the target audience?
12. Which individual need(s) will be satisfied?
13. How is it different from existing solutions/competitors?
14. What could be a potential revenue stream? What value are target users willing to pay? What and how do they recently pay?
15. What are the main challenges driving and executing the idea?
16. What are the main opportunities?
17. What are some potential threats or weaknesses?
18. What are the costs of bringing the idea to the next phase?

Visualizing and simplifying

A visual always helps readers to be able to grasp the idea and share feedback. I have used the following two templates for projects n the past.

This is the Strategyzer Value Proposition Canvas

4 simple value proposition questions from Asana

Ideation development phases

A project idea or startup venture should usually follow three phases:

1. Inspiration
2. Ideation
3. Implementation

Phase 1 Inspiration

This is where this inspiration exchange project could start with a first article following the template above. With the outline, readers should be able to understand the problem the idea is trying to solve and also understand the target audience. Ideally, it should follow up with comments or questions from readers and the author, mini surveys, or focus group meetings. The biggest objective is to understand the problem, the pain, and the journey of a target user.

Are there other templates that you find useful? Can the approach be simplified somewhere? And final question: what do you think about the idea in general?