This page provides tools and resources for generating and validating new product ideas, developing a value proposition for products, and links to entrepreneurial professional associations and trade publications. Additional business planning resources are available on the Entrepreneurship & Small Business Research Guide.
Defining and validating your business's products and services is an important part of business planning and a continuous activity as your business grows. There are many ways to approach creative thinking and brainstorming along the way. The resources in this section are a sampling of commonly used ideation and brainstorming tools for entrepreneurs.
The SCAMPER method is an brainstorming technique for generating ideas for new products and services, or innovating existing ones. It provides guiding questions in seven "provocation lenses": Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse.
Idea validation is important for proper business planning and securing funding. It includes Industry and Market research and, in some cases, product testing. The resources in this section are tools that can help frame your strategy and thinking about idea validation.
Value Proposition Canvases focus on a business's products and services. They are a framework for considering product/market fit and are sometimes used in tandem with a business model canvas.