Find Out Whether the Idea Is Worth Building, Before You Spend on Building It
Product discovery and feasibility work tests a new product idea against real constraints - cost, data, regulation, users who will actually pay - before development starts, giving a founder a smaller, provable first version instead of a guess.
What a Feasibility Study Covers
This engagement comes before a requirement document exists, when what you have is an idea and a plan to build all of it. We test the idea against three questions - is there a real problem behind it, can it be built within a sensible budget, and what is the smallest version that would prove the first two - and write the answer down rather than leaving it as an opinion in a meeting.
The Three Checks We Run
Desirability - Does Anyone Actually Want This
We separate what a handful of enthusiastic conversations suggested from what people would actually change their behaviour or pay for, because those are not the same signal.
Feasibility - Can It Be Built as Described
We check whether the data, integrations or regulatory approvals the idea depends on actually exist or are obtainable, rather than assuming they will fall into place during development.
Viability - Does the Smallest Version Justify the Spend
We size a first version against what it would cost to build and what it would need to prove, so the decision to proceed is made on a number, not on enthusiasm alone.
A Marketplace Idea Tested Against What It Needs to Work
Two founders plan a marketplace connecting small retailers to wholesalers, priced on the assumption that wholesalers will keep their stock levels updated in the app in real time. The feasibility check tests that assumption directly - talking to wholesalers about whether they would actually maintain live stock data, not just whether they like the idea - and finds most would only update it once a day at best. The recommendation is not to abandon the idea but to redesign the first version around once-daily stock refreshes instead of real time, and to pilot the matching manually over phone and messaging before any marketplace software is built at all.
What Drives Cost and Duration for a Feasibility Study
- How many distinct user types the idea has to serve before it makes sense as one product
- Whether the idea depends on data or an integration that has to be verified as obtainable, not assumed
- Whether a regulated sector is involved, which adds a compliance check to the feasibility work
- How many rounds of the founder's own assumptions need to be tested against outside evidence rather than internal conviction
What You Hold at the End of the Study
A Written Feasibility Verdict
A plain statement of whether the idea, as described, is worth building now, worth building smaller, or not yet worth building at all - with the reasoning shown.
A Defined First Version
The smallest set of features that would genuinely test the idea, separated from the features that can wait for a later version.
The Open Questions Named
The assumptions the recommendation still rests on, so you know exactly what a first version needs to prove rather than treating the launch as the finish line.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from just writing a PRD for what I already want to build?
A PRD documents a decision that has already been made. This engagement comes before that decision - it tests whether the idea holds up at all, and what the smallest version of it should be, before anything gets written up for a developer.
What if the honest answer is that I should not build this?
We say so, with the reasoning shown. A feasibility study that only ever confirms the founder's instinct is not doing its job - the value is in catching a weak idea before development money is spent on it, not after.
I have already spoken to potential customers - isn't that discovery done?
Conversations with a handful of enthusiastic contacts are a starting point, not a conclusion. This work tests whether that interest would survive being asked for money, data or a change in behaviour, which is a different and harder question.
What drives the cost of a feasibility study?
How many user types and use cases the idea has to serve, whether a regulated sector or third-party data dependency is involved, and how many of the founder's assumptions need outside verification rather than being taken on trust.
What decides how long a feasibility study takes?
How quickly prospective users and any technical dependencies can be reached and checked. An idea limited to one clear user type with no regulatory question moves faster than one serving several audiences with a compliance dimension.
Do I need any existing systems for this, since it is a new idea?
Not usually, though if the idea depends on data from an existing business - your own or a partner's - we look at whether that data is actually usable in its current form, since that often decides feasibility on its own.
What do you need from me to start?
The idea in your own words, whoever you have already spoken to about it, your real budget ceiling for a first version, and your honesty about which parts of the idea you are attached to versus open to changing.
Tell us what you need.
Send a short brief and one of our engineers will come back to you — usually the same day.
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