Free Tool
Idea Validation Score
8 questions. 60 seconds. No account, no email. Find out how much real evidence stands behind your idea — and where it's thin.
1. The same complaint shows up on 3+ independent sources (Reddit, reviews, YouTube, etc.), not just one community.
A pain point that only exists in one subreddit is often a quirk of that community, not a market.
2. The complaints use money, time, or emotional-intensity language ("wasted hours", "losing clients", "embarrassing").
Intensity predicts willingness to pay far better than complaint volume does.
3. You can name a specific tool, spreadsheet, or workaround people are actively trying to escape.
No named incumbent, even a bad one, is often a sign there's no real budget for this problem yet.
4. You know what people actually did the last time this problem happened — not what they say they'd do hypothetically.
Past behavior is evidence. Hypothetical enthusiasm is theater.
5. You can write a one-sentence value proposition using only words pulled from real complaints you collected.
If you can't fill in the sentence with real quotes, you haven't found a problem yet — you have a hunch.
6. The problem happens weekly or daily for the people who have it, not once a year.
Frequency is one of the three tests that separate a real pain point from a shrug.
7. People are already hacking together workarounds, spreadsheets, or paying for a partial fix.
Effort already spent solving a problem badly is a strong signal there's budget for solving it well.
8. Your niche is specific enough to name a person and a situation — not a vague, broad category.
"Freelancers juggling multiple clients with inconsistent invoicing" beats "project management software".
Frequently asked questions
How is the Idea Validation Score calculated?
It's a self-check across 8 yes/no questions pulled directly from the evidence-based validation framework UserConcern uses: cross-source confirmation, complaint intensity, named incumbents, past behavior, frequency, existing workarounds, and niche specificity. Each "yes" adds 12.5 points, for a score out of 100.
Is this the same as running a UserConcern search?
No — this is a manual self-check based on what you already know. A UserConcern search automates the evidence-gathering itself: it cross-checks 8 sources (Reddit, Amazon reviews, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter/X, Quora, Google Trends and AI answers) and returns the real quotes this quiz asks you to already have.
What's a good score?
80+ means your idea has real, multi-source evidence behind it and is worth a prototype. 55-79 means you have something real but a dimension is weak — sharpen it before building. Below 55 means you're working from a hunch more than evidence, which is common and completely fixable with more research.
Is this free tool gated or do I need an account?
No account, no email, no gate. Answer the 8 questions and see your score immediately. It runs entirely in your browser.
Where this framework comes from: How to Validate a SaaS Idea in 48 Hours