This is really the key question of the day for many, is it not? Whether your organization is an academic lab, a prospective start-up company, a young enterprise contemplating expansion, a middle-market outfit hoping to add a new product or service line, or a market leader striving for some offensive diversification - you would really like to know if that new-product concept is worth a damn before you invest in its full development and commercialization.

     There are many reasons to validate and test your idea before you place some potentially expensive bets. Here are a few of those reasons:

• It sets the expectations of investors, top management, other employees and alliance partners
• It avoids commercializing the wrong product and can steer you to the right one
• It avoids developing a product with a too-small market potential, or even no market potential at all
• It's a great way to establish personal and organizational credibility
• It can curtail a start-up enterprise or new-product initiative that is destined to fail

     As it happens, I addressed this very topic - validating and testing your idea - as part of an enterprise series workshop for the MIT Enterprise Forum. You can review my presentation here.