How to Vet Moonshot Ideas to Spur New Growth
Every business wants to chase bold ideas, but which ones are worth the risk? Vetting moonshot ideas requires balancing creativity with practicality. Here are eight steps to identify the ones that could transform your business:
1. Define Success Criteria
Google’s X division evaluates moonshot projects like Waymo by setting clear milestones for viability and scalability.
Action: Outline what success looks like, from ROI to market adoption, before committing resources.
2. Validate Market Need
Tesla’s early EV success stemmed from identifying a gap in the luxury sustainable vehicle market.
Action: Conduct market research to ensure your idea solves a real problem for a specific audience.
3. Start Small with MVPs
Airbnb launched as a simple website renting air mattresses, validating the concept before scaling.
Action: Develop a minimum viable product (MVP) to test demand and gather early user feedback.
4. Leverage Cross-Functional Teams
Amazon’s Alexa team drew insights from engineering, marketing, and design, ensuring a well-rounded development process.
Action: Build diverse teams to evaluate the feasibility, desirability, and profitability of each idea.
5. Secure Executive Buy-In
Apple’s Steve Jobs famously championed the iPhone, ensuring internal alignment and funding.
Action: Present moonshot concepts with clear data and storytelling to gain leadership support.
6. Analyze Cost vs. Impact
SpaceX prioritizes reusable rockets to lower costs while enabling moonshot innovation in space travel.
Action: Use cost-impact analysis to prioritize projects with high potential ROI.
7. Create Failsafes
Microsoft limits investment in moonshot ideas until early milestones prove success potential.
Action: Establish checkpoints to reassess feasibility and pivot if needed.
8. Celebrate Learning, Not Just Success
Google Glass may not have succeeded commercially, but its technology informed future AR projects.
Action: Document lessons from moonshots and apply them to future initiatives.
FintastIQ helps you evaluate moonshot ideas with scenario planning, cost-impact analysis, and data-driven insights, so you can take bold risks with confidence.