_# A Founder’s Checklist – Ideation and Value Proposition Design

As a founder, your journey from a novel idea to a market-ready product is fraught with uncertainty. In Switzerland, a hub of innovation, you are part of a dynamic ecosystem where over 50,000 new companies are founded annually. Yet, statistics show a challenging path to longevity. According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, only about half of these new ventures survive their first five years 1. The primary reason for failure is often not a lack of technical innovation, but a failure to connect your innovation to a genuine market need.

This guide provides a systematic, fact-based path for you to rigorously vet your ideas and design a compelling value proposition. Following these steps can significantly de-risk the initial phase of your startup.

Section 1: A Systematic Approach to Vetting Your Concept

Your initial idea is a starting point, not a destination. You need a structured process to refine and validate its potential. Your first checkpoint is to conduct broad idea generation, avoiding commitment to the first concept that comes to mind. By systematically generating multiple ideas—observing inefficiencies in an industry, identifying underserved needs, or exploring new technology applications—you can create a stronger pool of potential ventures.

Once you have a set of ideas, your next step is to pre-screen them using the Need, Approach, Potential (NAP) framework. This acts as a quick, effective filter. For Need, you must ask if there is a quantifiable market demand and a specific problem to be solved.

A solution without a problem is a common cause of startup failure. For Approach, consider if your proposed solution is technically and commercially feasible, and if it offers a unique advantage over existing alternatives—a 10x improvement is often cited as the threshold for driving customer adoption. Finally, for Potential, you must assess if the addressable market is large enough to build a venture-scale business. A niche market may be profitable but may not attract investment. To ground these assessments in reality, it is crucial for you to perform initial market research, gathering objective data on market size, growth trends, and the competitive landscape in Switzerland and beyond.

Section 2: Achieving Problem-Solution Fit

A value proposition is your clear, evidence-backed statement of the tangible benefits your product or service provides to a specific customer segment. To design one effectively, you must first develop a data-driven customer persona. This goes beyond simple demographics; you should use an Empathy Map to build a profile based on interviews and observation, documenting what your target customer Thinks, Feels, Sees, and Does in relation to the problem space.

With a deep understanding of the customer, your next checkpoint is to map their needs using the Value Proposition Canvas. This essential tool, developed by Strategyzer, ensures problem-solution fit by connecting the Customer Profile (their Jobs-to-be-Done, Pains, and Gains) with the Value Map (the Products & Services, Pain Relievers, and Gain Creators you offer). This process forces you to create a direct link between a customer’s needs and the features of your solution.

After completing the canvas, you can formulate a clear value proposition statement. A proven template for you to use is: “Our [Product/Service] helps [Customer Segment] who want to [Job-to-be-Done] by [Verb, e.g., reducing] [a Customer Pain] and [Verb, e.g., enabling] [a Customer Gain].”

Section 3: Turning Your Assumptions into Facts

Every element of your Value Proposition Canvas is an assumption that you must test. Your next critical step is to identify and prioritize your riskiest assumptions. You can rank them by how critical they are to your business’s success and how little evidence you currently have to support them. The top-ranked assumption should always be the first one you test.

Your final checkpoint in this phase is to conduct problem-validation interviews. The goal here is to validate the “Customer Profile” side of the canvas by engaging with at least 10-15 potential customers. It is vital that you do not pitch your solution; instead, ask open-ended questions to confirm that the identified jobs, pains, and gains are real and significant.

For you as an early-stage entrepreneur in Switzerland seeking guidance through this critical phase, Innosuisse, the Swiss Innovation Agency, offers invaluable resources. The Innosuisse Startup Training programs provide expert coaching and a structured environment where you can rigorously test your business ideas and validate your value propositions with experienced professionals and peers. These offerings are designed to help you build your venture on a foundation of evidence, not just assumptions.

By methodically completing these steps, you can move from a raw idea to a validated, customer-centric value proposition, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent design of a viable business model.