The 10-question rubric we use to score every idea
This is the simplified version of the full 5-dimension rubric the IdeaTwister engine uses on every variation it generates. Two questions per dimension, fifteen minutes start to finish. Answer interactively below or print it out to get a verdict before you write a line of code.
The 5 dimensions are Buyer Urgency, Market Proof, Solo Executability, Revenue Speed, and Defensibility. Each question is either a yes/no or a 1 to 5 scale. Yes counts as 5, no counts as 0.
- BUBuyer Urgency. How loud the pain is when the buyer hits it this week.
- MPMarket Proof. Whether real customers already pay anyone for a worse version.
- SESolo Executability. Whether one technical operator can ship and sell it without a team.
- RSRevenue Speed. How fast the first dollar lands after launch.
- DFDefensibility. What stops the next clone the day after you post on X.
Buyer Urgency
How loud the pain is when the buyer hits it this week.
- 01
Can you name a specific person who hit this pain in the last 30 days?
Scale: Yes / No
What good looks like. You name a real human, not a persona. You can quote what they said and roughly when they said it. If you cannot, the urgency is theoretical.
Your score - 02
On a 1 to 5 scale, how often does this pain repeat for the same buyer?
Scale: 1 = once a year, 5 = weekly
What good looks like. A 4 or 5 means the buyer is reminded of the pain often enough to keep paying. Once-a-year pain rarely converts on a cold pitch.
Your score
Market Proof
Whether real customers already pay anyone for a worse version.
- 03
Is at least one buyer already paying a competitor, agency, or tool for a worse version of this?
Scale: Yes / No
What good looks like. A yes is the strongest validation signal you can get cheaply. A no means you are not just selling a tool, you are selling a category. That is a 3x harder job.
Your score - 04
On a 1 to 5 scale, how clearly proven is the demand without being oversaturated?
Scale: 1 = completely empty/risky OR oversaturated, 5 = proven demand with weak competitors
What good looks like. A 5 is the sweet spot: real demand, room for a sharper angle. A 1 is either a risky greenfield or a knife fight on price.
Your score
Solo Executability
Whether one technical operator can ship and sell it without a team.
- 05
Can a single technical founder ship a usable v1 in under 30 days?
Scale: Yes / No
What good looks like. A yes means no specialist hires, no integrations that need a partnership, no compliance moat that takes 6 months. If a v1 needs SOC 2 on day one, the answer is no.
Your score - 06
On a 1 to 5 scale, how closely does this match your existing domain expertise?
Scale: 1 = I know nothing about this industry, 5 = I have years of insider experience
What good looks like. A 4 or 5 is ideal. It means you have an unfair advantage. A 1 or 2 means you spend the first 6 months learning the domain instead of shipping.
Your score
Want this scored automatically across 50+ variations of your idea? IdeaTwister runs the same 5 dimensions on every angle in about an hour. $39 once.
Revenue Speed
How fast the first dollar lands after launch.
- 07
Can you name a single channel that puts the offer in front of a paying buyer this week?
Scale: Yes / No
What good looks like. A specific subreddit, a real DM list, a directory you can post to today. If your honest answer is content marketing or SEO, mark this no. Those are 6-month plays.
Your score - 08
On a 1 to 5 scale, how short is the path from buyer interest to first invoice?
Scale: 1 = 6 months, 5 = same day
What good looks like. A 4 or 5 means a self-serve checkout or a Stripe link sent at the end of a 20-minute call. Long enterprise cycles kill solo cash flow before traction shows up.
Your score
Defensibility
What stops the next clone the day after you post on X.
- 09
Is there one thing you can build, learn, or earn that a clone cannot copy in a weekend?
Scale: Yes / No
What good looks like. A yes points to a real moat: a niche dataset, a workflow integration, a relationship with 20 buyers, a brand the niche trusts. A pretty UI is not a moat.
Your score - 10
On a 1 to 5 scale, how much does this idea get stronger as you keep running it?
Scale: 1 = no compounding, 5 = data, brand, and network all stack
What good looks like. A 4 or 5 means month 12 you is harder to displace than month 3 you. Pure feature plays score 1 or 2. Data, distribution, and trust score higher.
Your score
Add it up. Read your verdict.
Total possible: 50. Yes equals 5, No equals 0, scale answers count as their digit.
The idea is not ready. Either the buyer is theoretical, the market is empty, or the path to first revenue is too long. Park it. Pick another seed.
There is a real signal in here, but at least one dimension is shaky. Talk to five more buyers in the next 14 days and re-score. Most ideas live in this band.
Strong across the board. Lock a single 30-day validation test (one channel, one offer, one revenue metric) and run it next week. Do not refactor the score, run the test.
If you would rather skip the manual scoring
IdeaTwister runs all 5 dimensions on your idea in about an hour. 15 agents, 50+ scored variations, $100K math, and 30-day plans for the top five. Runs locally on your machine. Visit ideatwister.com.
Keep reading
- GuideHow to validate a business idea in 24 hours
- EssayWhy most business ideas fail
- Free report50 unsexy business ideas, fully scored
- List50 niche business ideas for solo founders
- FrameworkWhere good startup ideas come from
- LibraryAll free tools and lead magnets
- ProductRun the full engine on your idea
- AnswersFrequently asked, in one place
Frequently asked
How long does the checklist actually take?
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About 15 minutes if you have already talked to a real buyer. Closer to an hour if you have not, because most of the questions force you to admit which buyer you are imagining instead of one you have spoken to. That extra hour is the point. Most solo founders skip it and pay for it later.
Why 10 questions and not 20?
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Because 20 is what kills printed checklists. 10 questions takes a coffee to fill in, and forces you to make a call. The full IdeaTwister engine runs a 50-point rubric across 15 agents. This page is the espresso version of that rubric, distilled for human use.
Should I score my idea or my competitor for comparison?
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Both, on separate sheets. Run yours first without peeking at theirs. Then score the closest paying competitor on the same 10 questions. If your total is within 5 points of theirs and you have no clear angle on at least one dimension, you are pitching a marginal upgrade. Sharpen the angle before you build.
Where does the 5-dimension rubric come from?
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It is the same rubric the IdeaTwister engine uses to score every variation it generates: Buyer Urgency, Market Proof, Solo Executability, Revenue Speed, Defensibility. The full engine runs 15 agents and scores 50+ variations of your idea in about an hour. This checklist is the manual one-idea version.