HovhannesSolopreneur

Free diagnostic

Are you ready to build?

Twelve questions about decisions you have either made or not made yet. At the end: a score, the three gaps that will cost you most, and one thing to do next. Three minutes, no signup, no email required.

What it measures

Most half-built products do not fail on code. They fail because a decision was postponed until the build forced it, and by then the answer was expensive. These are the five places that happens.

Positioning
Who it is for, and what they do instead today.
MVP Boundary
What is in v1, what is out, and how you will know it worked.
Feature Logic
Why each feature exists, and what breaks without it.
Flows & Dependencies
The path to first value, and what a change affects.
Build Readiness
Whether somebody else — or an agent — could build it from what exists.

The questions

Answer as things actually are, not as you intend them to be. Nobody sees this but you, there is nothing to win, and a flattering answer buys a wrong result and a wasted month.

  1. Positioning

    Who is the first version for?

    • Anyone who has this problem
    • A broad group I can describe in one sentence
    • A specific role in a specific situation
    • A specific role, and I have spoken to at least five of them

  2. Positioning

    What do they do today instead?

    • I am not sure
    • Nothing — this is a new behaviour
    • A competitor product I can name
    • A specific workaround I have watched them use

  3. MVP Boundary

    If you had to ship in two weeks, what would you cut?

    • I do not know what I would cut
    • I would cut things, but I would decide then
    • I have a rough list
    • The list is written down and the decision is already made

  4. MVP Boundary

    What must v1 do for it to be worth shipping at all?

    • Several things — it does not work without all of them
    • One thing, but I would struggle to state it
    • One thing, stated in a sentence
    • One thing, stated — and I know how I would tell if it worked

  5. MVP Boundary

    How many features are in your v1 as currently planned?

    • More than 15, or I have not counted
    • 8–15
    • 4–7
    • 1–3

  6. Feature Logic

    Pick any feature in your v1. Why is it there?

    • It is expected, or competitors have it
    • Users asked for it
    • It is required for the one thing v1 must do
    • It is required, and I know what breaks without it

  7. Feature Logic

    If you removed your third most important feature, what would happen?

    • I do not know
    • The product would feel incomplete
    • A specific person could not finish a specific task
    • I have already tested it on paper and know the answer

  8. Flows & Dependencies

    Can you name every screen a new user passes through before getting value?

    • No
    • Roughly
    • Yes, I can list them
    • Yes, and they are written down in order

  9. Flows & Dependencies

    When you change one feature, do you know what else it affects?

    • No — I find out when something breaks
    • For some parts
    • Mostly, from memory
    • It is written down — I can look it up

  10. Flows & Dependencies

    What has to be built before anything else can work?

    • I have not thought in that order
    • I have an intuition
    • I know the first two or three things
    • There is a build order, derived from dependencies

  11. Build Readiness

    If you handed this to a developer or an AI agent tomorrow, what would they ask first?

    • Almost everything — they would need me constantly
    • A lot of clarifying questions
    • A few edge cases
    • Almost nothing — the decisions are written down

  12. Build Readiness

    Where do your product decisions live?

    • In my head
    • Scattered across chats and notes
    • In one document
    • In one place, kept current as things change