Concept Testing is a project for bringing new ideas to life.
The immediate goal is to launch valuable products.
The meta-concept is to build a "sufficiently decentralized incubator", finding an effective way to coordinate ideas, capital, users, and builders.
Background
I have always been an "ideas guy".
When I was younger, I told my parents I wanted to be "a founder, but not a CEO". I liked thinking about product ideas, but I didn't want to get distracted by the "boring parts" like fundraising or hiring.
This disposition, plus my experience in social psychology, led me to the world of user research. I was attracted to the idea of collaborating directly with people – designers, engineers, users – to create amazing products.
Over the years, I've realized I like working with teams at the earliest stages of their journey. Prior to product-market fit, the opportunity space is open. Less has been "solved", so there is more appetite for exploration.
The Opportunity
When I joined Farcaster, I was quickly impressed by the abundance of bright minds and technical skill.
However, I noticed something: great ideas were being shared but left undeveloped, while developers built interesting applications that didn't solve pressing problems.
Is it possible that my perception of idea quality was poorly calibrated?* Or that builders have more motivations than building something valuable? Absolutely. But I still couldn't shake the sense that there could be more alignment between supply and demand.
When I discussed this with Jonny Mack (nonlinear.eth), co-founder & CEO of Fabric, he described this as a coordination issue. He recently put this thinking onchain, in an essay exploring the relationship between ideas, capital, and execution.
One of the exciting things about crypto, for me, is that it makes coordination easier.
Just as cloud computing made it easy to share files with others, blockchains make work easy to access and build on. People can pick up where others left off. (Enter your favorite buzzword here: permissionless, composable, decentralized, etc.)
Fabric has made it easier to coordinate capital. Farcaster makes it easier to coordinate ideas. Bountycaster makes it easier to coordinate execution.
Concept Testing is an attempt to bring everything together.
What is Concept Testing?
The name refers to the practice of concept testing, a user research method of getting targeted feedback early in the development process, in order to iterate and improve the chance of success.
The capital-lettered Concept Testing is a project between myself and Samuel Huber. Like me, he is an Ideas Guy, but as a developer, he knows how to evaluate ideas for feasibility and scope them for technical execution.
For the past several weeks, we've been exploring methodologies that would allow us to take ideas and get them launched.
After many iterations, we’ve landed on a methodology that we’re excited about.
How this Works
This publication on Paragraph is one part of the process.
Above is a diagram showing the full process. I'll explain each part in more detail below:
Ideate
Farcaster is brimming with great ideas. Coordinating them is probably the easiest part of this whole thing!
For now, we’re sourcing ideas from the /someone-build channel. (Thanks to lght.eth for kickstarting the coordination!)
To participate in the ideation process, just cast your ideas to the channel. We're regularly engaging with folks there to learn more about their ideas.
Evaluate
Many ideas are shared, but only a fraction can be built. As a first filter, ideas will be screened on the following variables:
Desirability: do people actually want this?
Feasibility: can this actually be built?
Viability: does this idea "make sense" as a business?
This isn't a perfect process. However, at this point, it is meant to be a quick screening exercise. We're looking for a simple yes/no to decide whether the idea should be prioritized for further exploration.
Right now, it’s just Samuel and I making the decisions. In the future, this could evolve into a more decentralized voting system, or there might be a pool of collaborators who can choose to "sponsor" an idea.
Validate
Once we've gotten excited about an idea, we'll start writing.
The goal at this point is to articulate the idea: what is it, who is it for, and how would it work?
This takes some time and a level of commitment, but we aren't fully attached to the concept yet. Whether or not we move on to the next stage depends on the collective response to the fleshed out idea.
We'll be using Paragraph (the publishing platform you’re reading right now!) to deliver the concepts. There are two purposes for this: distribution and resonance.
On Paragraph, posts can be collected as NFTs. We plan to use this feature as a way to validate the concepts: people who "collect" the idea are invited to participate in its further development.
The exact price and number of collectibles are variables to experiment with. We want there to be enough scarcity & friction so we can host an effective discussion with only truly interested parties, but it shouldn't be so restrictive as to be exclusive.
If there's enough interest in an idea, we'll move forward.
Collecting posts should not be done as a financial investment. There is no financial equity involved with being an early supporter of a concept.
Minting a post does not guarantee that the idea will be pursued further by Concept Testing.
Define
If there's sufficient interest in a concept, the next step is to figure out what an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) looks like. What specifically needs to get built to bring this concept to life?
To do this, we'll form a working group with the early supporters of the concept. For now, this will take the form of a group chat on Warpcast, token-gated to the collectors of the Paragraph post.
Over the following few days, we'll survey the group for their opinions and priorities. This stage of the process is designed to get detailed feedback from a committed group of folks. Together, Samuel and I will play the role of Product Manager to create a scope for v1 of the concept.
Fundraise
When the MVP is scoped and the details are set, it's time to raise capital.
Instead of turning to venture capital, we can go directly to the masses with a crowdfund.
Why crowdfund?
It’s clear what exactly being delivered.
There are no expectation of financial returns.
We’re not giving away equity.
Importantly, the success of a crowdfund also determines whether there is sufficient demand for a product. Although we have validated the concept, it’s time to test if people want to pay for the final product that has been defined in the previous stage.
If a crowdfund fails to garner enough support, the project will be abandoned and the funds will be returned.
Otherwise, when a fundraising campaign is completed, we move to the next stage.
Build
The “execution” phase starts with a post on Bountycaster.
The bounty amount will be 90% of the raised funds – a small fee will go to Concept Testing to remain operational. As a default, bounties will be open for one month, although this may vary depending on the project complexity.
Although the bounties will have detailed specifications, including tips for developers, Samuel will be available for “builder support” for anyone interested. He has already been building open source tools that will be helpful for developers on future projects.
In the spirit of decentralization, we won’t have any applications for bounties. Whoever produces a working product to specification wins the bounty – people may coordinate and split a bounty as they see fit.
Bounties will require open-source development. This is to ensure that a product can live on and be further developed even if the original developer chooses not to pursue the idea further.
If all goes well, we’ll have a functioning product available by the end of the month! (If a bounty fails to return a product to the specifications listed in the crowdfund, all funds will be returned to the backers.)
Although we can't enforce this, we strongly encourage the bounty winners to provide early and/or discounted access to early supporters – crowdfund contributors and initial working group members.
At this point, Concept Testing will officially step out of the process and move to the next idea.
Parting Thoughts
While the specific details of this process may change, we have conviction in the general methodology.
Firstly, we’ve structured this meta-concept to align incentives between all parties.
Concept Testing only gets paid if we can facilitate the development of a product that people will pay for.**
Backers of a crowdfund only pay if a product gets built.
Developers get paid to build a product with a built-in user base.
Products are open-source to ensure potential longevity.
Additionally, we’ve deliberately avoided the framework of equity via tokenization. Although crypto would be a great tool to provide upside to backers, we prefer to avoid any legal grey areas given the regulatory uncertainty in the U.S.
“Sufficiently Decentralized”
The term “sufficiently decentralized” is, of course, a nod to Farcaster’s founding ethos.
Over the long-term, we hope to evolve Concept Testing into a project that can meaningfully launch ideas that are developed, funded, and built by the community.
We have ideas about how to further involve and reward those who provide ideas, capital, and execution. However, we want to prove out the initial process first.
Consider this post an overview of Concept Testing v1.
To stay up to date, please join the /concept-testing channel in Farcaster and subscribe to this publication!
*While I'd like to believe I have naturally great ideas, the reality is I have developed a skillset for evaluating and testing ideas. This insight is a large motivation for this project.
**The mint fees for the Paragraph posts aren’t intended to be a revenue source for Concept Testing. Plus, we expect that people will stop minting posts if we fail to deliver products at a meaningful rate.
