5 checks to identify real product opportunities before they hit your roadmap
Not every product idea should move forward.
Before product teams invest time analyzing an idea, they need a quick way to answer a simpler question:
Is this actually an opportunity—or just a distraction?
Too often, ideas move forward based on internal opinions, isolated feedback, or urgency. As a result, teams spend time evaluating ideas that were never strong opportunities to begin with.
The 5 Checks provide a fast, practical way to filter product ideas early — before committing time to more detailed analysis or roadmap decisions.
This approach helps teams quickly:
- Assess alignment with strategy and target market
- Confirm there is real evidence of a market problem
- Evaluate how important the problem is to solve
- Consider potential business impact
- Determine whether the idea is meaningfully differentiated
By filtering out distractions early, teams can spend less time debating weak ideas and invest more time in deeper evaluation with greater confidence.
