Idea Validator

A Claude Code skill that deep-researches business ideas and stress-tests them before you commit to building. Feed it a rough concept and get back a blunt, evidence-based verdict: GO, PIVOT, or SCRATCH — plus a structured product-brief.md ready to hand off to project-scaffold.

This skill does not encourage ideas. It finds the truth.

How It Works

1. Extract the hypothesis — Pulls the idea from conversation or asks one clarifying question
2. Deep research — Runs web searches across 7 areas: market demand, competitors, ICP, monetization, distribution, moats, and risks
3. Synthesize — Scores the opportunity internally across 5 dimensions
4. Verdict — Delivers a direct, evidence-backed verdict
5. Product brief — Generates a structured product-brief.md
6. Handoff — Points you to project-scaffold to start building (or tells you to move on)

Verdicts

Verdict	Meaning
GO	Clear demand, defined ICP, monetizable market, realistic path to revenue. Build it.
PIVOT	Original idea is weak, but an adjacent opportunity scores better. Build that instead.
SCRATCH	No demand signal, crowded market, no differentiation. Move on.

Trigger Phrases

• "I have an idea"
• "I'm thinking of building"
• "Is there a market for..."
• "Validate this idea"
• "Is this worth building?"
• "Could this be a business?"

Works in both Claude chat and Claude Code.

Project Structure

idea-validator/
├── SKILL.md                         # Skill definition and workflow
├── assets/
│   └── templates/
│       └── product-brief.md         # Output template for validated ideas
└── references/
    ├── research-areas.md            # 7 research areas with signals and red flags
    └── scoring.md                   # Internal scoring rubric (1-5 per dimension)

Installation

Install via the Skill Installer:

/skill-lookup idea-validator

Or clone directly into your skills directory:

git clone <repo-url> ~/.claude/skills/idea-validator

Output

The skill produces a product-brief.md containing:

• The Idea — One-paragraph summary
• Verdict — Blunt explanation with evidence
• Market — Size, demand signals, specific evidence
• Competitors — Table with pricing, positioning, weaknesses
• ICP — Role, budget authority, current solution, where to find them
• Monetization — Model, price point, rationale
• Distribution — Primary and secondary channels
• Differentiation — Core angle and moat potential
• Risks — Assumptions table (validated/unvalidated) and biggest risk
• The Wedge (MVP) — Smallest version to test the core assumption

This brief feeds directly into the project-scaffold skill to generate a full project spec and CLAUDE.md.

Requirements

• Web search capability (required for all research)
• Claude chat or Claude Code