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How I Decide Whether an Idea Is Worth Pursuing

A man looks across the Vancouver skyline, illustrating the process of refining an idea until it is strong enough to become a business.

Having ideas is easy for me.

Deciding what deserves years of attention is much harder.

That distinction has become increasingly important because the opportunity cost of a good idea can be enormous. Building one thing means not building ten others.

So I try to evaluate ideas across several dimensions without pretending there is a perfect scoring system.

Problem: Is there a real problem or desire underneath the concept?

People: Who cares enough to do something about it?

Timing: Why now? What changed that makes the opportunity more viable or important?

Difference: Is there a meaningful reason this should exist rather than simply becoming another version of what is already available?

Feasibility: Can it actually be built with available technology, people, capital and time?

Economics: Is there a credible path to creating and capturing value?

Advantage: Why are we particularly well positioned to pursue it?

Evidence: What do we know and what are we merely assuming?

Then I add a question that I think gets overlooked:

What is the right vehicle for the idea?

Maybe I should build it. Maybe Wokaura should incubate it. Maybe it belongs with a co-founder who knows the field better than I do. Maybe it should be licensed, sold or developed as intellectual property. Maybe it is a creative project rather than a venture. Maybe it should sit for two years.

Rejecting the assumption that every good idea must become my company gives me much more freedom to evaluate the idea itself.

Once an idea earns the right to move forward, I shift from imagination into evidence. That process connects directly into Venture Building.

The goal is not to eliminate uncertainty before beginning. It is to decide whether the possibility is interesting enough to justify the next experiment.

Continue exploring

This article is part of my Creativity & Innovation authority series. Continue with Creativity & Innovation hub, Seeing What Others Miss: How I Think About Ideas, Creativity & Innovation, Idea Capture: Why I Treat My Notes Like an Inventory of Possibility and Future Thinking: Look for What Is Becoming Possible, Not Just What Exists Today.

Chad McMillan

Chad McMillan is a creative entrepreneur and strategic advisor with over 20 years of experience in and around the capital markets, focused on finding hidden potential in companies, ideas, markets and people, and advancing what they can become.