The checklist for successful products has three broad categories of challenges a new product must address: it has to be feasible, it has to be desirable and it has to be profitable.
Checklist for Successful Products
Feasible
Can your product be built?
What kind of skills are required to build it?
How much will it cost?
How can you build a prototype using existing products?
What are the product development risks?
How much time will it take to develop the product?
Where are the schedule, cost & feature tradeoffs?
What are the key feasibility risks?
Desirable
How have customers solved the problem today?
What are you replacing?
What do people like about the current solutions?
What do they not like about the current solutions?
How much money will they spend?
How often will they use it?
What do people say about your prototype?
Will people pay to learn more about the problem?
How many have to adopt it?
What are the key questions that you have to answer to determine how desirable the product is for your target customer?
Profitable
How much will it cost to develop it?
How much will it cost to market it?
How much will customers spend?
Do you understand your cost drivers?
Is it a one time purchase or recurring expense?
What is the smallest “getting started” price?
Is there a small market that will accept a higher price point that you can use to debug your product?