Niche Scoring Without Overengineering (Non-Technical)

Skip the heavy market sizing methodology. Five candidates, five criteria, fifteen minutes total.

What You Can Skip

TAM/SAM/SOM. Bottom-up models. Persona docs. Customer journey maps. Competitor matrices. None earn their place at five candidates.

What You Cannot Skip

Five candidates including ones you would not pick by gut. Honest builder-fit (audience, not interest). Twenty minutes of existing-spend research per candidate.

When Heavier Tooling Earns Its Place

Past ten or more candidate niches across multiple verticals, or when raising capital and investors want a market-size estimate. Until then, the lightweight version is enough.

The Trade

Fifteen minutes catches the worst picks. The alternative is heavier methodology that delays the decision and produces no more useful filter.