There is a great big world of difference between a good idea and a great one. A problem a lot of entrepreneurial people run into is that they are idea factories. Every twenty minutes they are coming up with the “next big thing” and every twenty-five they lose interest in their last idea in favor of a shiny new one.

While there is nothing wrong with building worlds on scraps of paper, there comes a point where you actually have to commit to a single plan and follow through. The question then is how do you sort through the pile of mental detritus to find the diamonds beyond. Here are a few tips.

Great Ideas Are Cheap

“If I had $50 Million in funding and a hundred person staff I could definitely put together a Google killer.” The problem with this line of thinking, even if it is backed up by some technical details, is that you don’t have anywhere near these type of resources. A great idea is one which you could with elbow grease, some social engineering and a little bit of luck put together using your friends and an American Express card.

Before even considering an idea, make sure that it’s something that you could reasonably see yourself putting together if all your pie in the sky dreams of VC fell through.

Great Ideas Are Stupid

Great ideas take really simple concepts and build on them. Great features trade complexity for utility. If you are aiming to build on an idea, however, be sure that it is sufficiently stupid. The telephone let two people talk over a distance. The airplane let people travel to far away lands quickly.

If the concept you are trying to get across can’t be explained just as broadly, it is as likely as not that you are just creating a feature. Features almost always have limited scope.

Great Ideas Build Themselves

Know your skills. An idea is only good if you can build it, or you know how to get it built. If you are spending hundreds of hours trying to figure out how to form an SQL query, you probably shouldn’t be putting together a database driven web application. Really great ideas are one part concept and nine parts skill. Before throwing yourself into a project, take an inventory of your intellectual capital.

Great Ideas Just Work

Really great ideas should have concrete steps that lead from concept to conclusion. If your idea banks on everyone in the world deciding that tweed sweaters are fashionable, well, you probably want to spend a little more time sanity checking it. The reason that so few ideas make it past the pad of paper is because they read more likely boring science fiction than practical products.

Before you dive into a new idea, try to decide whether anyone you know would actually use it and why.

Web 2.0 Roundup

There is a lot more to making a good product than coming up with a great idea, but without a great idea any product you put together will be all but doomed to failure. Next time you are considering turning your back of the envelope musings into something concrete, be sure to run it through a few sanity checks. It will save you a lot of time and might just help you turn your good idea into a great one.

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