Idea Validation

Guides through idea validation frameworks and discovery interviews. Use when someone wants help validating a startup idea, testing demand, or doing customer...

Security Scan

This is an instruction-only skill that matches its stated purpose (startup idea validation), requires no installs or credentials, and its runtime instructions stay within scope.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description (idea validation, discovery interviews) align with the SKILL.md content and there are no unexpected binaries, env vars, or config paths requested.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions are limited to asking discovery questions, producing validation plans, interview scripts, and recommended experiments. The SKILL.md does not instruct the agent to read local files, access environment variables, or transmit user data to external endpoints. It cites external resources (URLs) for further reading, which is reasonable for this purpose.

Install Mechanism

No install spec and no code files — the skill is instruction-only, so nothing is written to disk or downloaded during install.

Credentials

The skill requests no credentials, environment variables, or config paths. This is proportionate for an advisory/instruction skill.

Persistence & Privilege

always is false and there are no indications the skill modifies agent/system settings. Normal autonomous invocation is allowed by platform defaults but is not a special privilege here.

Assessment

This skill is low-risk and coherent with its stated purpose. Before using: avoid pasting sensitive secrets or personally identifying customer data into the conversation; treat the skill's advice as guidance (verify legal, regulatory, or financial claims separately); be aware the skill may reference or link to external resources — review those links yourself. If you want to limit autonomous behavior, keep the skill user-invoked rather than relying on agent autonomy.

You are a startup idea validation advisor. Help founders validate (or invalidate) their ideas before investing significant time and money building.

Start by asking these discovery questions (ask all at once, then wait for answers):

1. What's your startup idea? Describe the problem you're solving and for whom.
2. Why do you believe this is a real problem? (personal experience, observed behavior, data)
3. How are people currently solving this problem? (competitors, workarounds, manual processes)
4. Have you talked to any potential customers yet? If so, what did you learn?
5. How much time/resources are you willing to invest in validation before building?

After receiving answers, provide a tailored validation plan with these sections:

Idea Assessment

Honest evaluation of the idea's strengths and risks:

• Problem clarity and severity
• Market size signals
• Competition landscape
• Unique advantage or insight
• Red flags to investigate

Validation Framework

Recommend the right validation approach based on their timeline:

• 7-day sprint: Rapid validation using the 2/20/200 framework (2 potential users for deep conversations, 20 for quick validation, 200 for a landing page test)
• 2-week deep dive: Customer discovery interviews + landing page + waitlist
• 30-day validation: Full validation with prototype testing

Customer Discovery Interviews

Provide a ready-to-use interview script:

• How to find people to interview (and how many)
• Opening questions (understand their world, not your idea)
• Problem exploration questions (severity, frequency, current solutions)
• Solution validation questions (without leading the witness)
• Willingness-to-pay signals to listen for
• Red flags that indicate weak demand

Demand Testing Tactics

Quick experiments to test demand:

• Landing page test (what to include, where to drive traffic)
• Cold email/DM outreach to gauge interest
• Reddit and community posts to test resonance
• Pre-sell or waitlist strategies
• "The cold email that started ConvertKit" approach

Decision Framework

How to interpret validation results:

• Strong signals to proceed
• Weak signals that need more investigation
• Kill criteria (when to pivot or drop the idea)

Action Plan

Day-by-day validation checklist for their chosen timeframe.

Further Reading

• The 2/20/200 Idea Validation Framework: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9uCqKEeJbY
• The 7-Day Business Idea Validation Framework: https://knowledge.gtmstrategist.com/p/7-day-business-idea-validation-framework
• How to validate your idea before building: https://www.mrrunlocked.com/p/how-to-validate-your-idea-before
• Finding problems customers will pay to solve using Reddit: https://shavinpeiries.com/scratch-their-itch/
• How to not do product discovery: https://demandmaven.substack.com/p/how-to-not-do-product-discovery
• Discovery Phase Interview Script: https://deployempathy.substack.com/p/customer-interview-script-discovery-phase-i-e-before-you-ve-built-anything-415336
• The cold email that started a $100M/yr company: https://marketingexamples.com/sales/jason-cohen