Three-Question Quick Innovation Test
Screen rapid business ideas for demand, relevance, and novelty
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 99%
The Three-Question Quick Innovation Test filters ideas through demand, cultural relevance, and novelty. First ask what people are requesting or trying to accomplish now, including questions directed at the wider market rather than explicitly at your company. Second ask whether a proposed response fits the current cultural and practical environment; an idea that ignores prevailing constraints fails this gate. Third ask what genuinely new action the business can take, rather than resurrecting something that already failed under better conditions. The answers should converge on a small experiment that removes friction and gives people immediate value. Social Curator applied the test by recognizing demand for social-media guidance, confirming its relevance to homebound business owners, and creating a new free-access experience with templates, photos, captions, and an action plan.
Origin
Extracted from The Jasmine Star Show, where Jasmine Star introduced three questions for quick innovation and demonstrated them through Social Curator's free sneak-peek experience.
Core principles
- 01Start with questions people are already asking.
- 02Test every idea against its cultural context.
- 03Create something genuinely new rather than reviving a proven failure.
- 04Convert answers into a small, executable experiment.
- 05Reduce customer paralysis with practical tools.
How to run it
- 1
Ask What People Want Now
Collect the questions, requests, and recurring problems visible in your audience or market. Include indirect signals even when people are not asking your company personally.
Pro tip Review comments, messages, support requests, search behavior, and conversations in adjacent communities.
Watch out Do not confuse your preferred idea with demonstrated audience interest.
- 2
Check Cultural Relevance
Determine whether the idea fits current behavior, restrictions, emotions, and priorities. Reject solutions that require customers to behave as though circumstances have not changed.
Pro tip Describe the customer's present environment before evaluating the idea.
Watch out A normally attractive offer can be mistimed or insensitive in a changed context.
- 3
Require a New Move
Identify a delivery method, access model, resource, or experience the business has not previously offered. Avoid recycling an idea that failed under more favorable conditions.
Pro tip Novelty can come from packaging or access rather than inventing an entirely new capability.
Watch out Newness alone does not compensate for weak demand or poor relevance.
- 4
Build the Smallest Useful Version
Combine the three answers into a focused experiment that solves one immediate problem. Include enough value for people to experience the proposed benefit.
Pro tip Use existing assets and expertise to launch within days when risk is low.
Watch out Do not let a quick experiment expand into a full platform before observing use.
- 5
Remove Friction and Learn
Make the experiment easy to access, then observe adoption, questions, and outcomes. Use the evidence to improve, retain, or retire the idea.
Pro tip When possible, remove sales pressure so behavior reflects interest in the solution itself.
Watch out Attention without actual use is weak validation.
In the wild
Business owners repeatedly asked how to maintain a social presence from home, making the problem both visible and culturally relevant. Because normal enrollment was closed, the team created something new: free access to a limited experience containing photos, captions, story templates, and a marketing action plan without a backend sales pitch.
→ The team converted urgent audience questions into an accessible experiment that equipped entrepreneurs to act.
A nutrition coach notices repeated questions about shopping only once every two weeks. The coach verifies that shelf-stable meal planning is culturally relevant, then tests a new live workshop with a downloadable pantry planner rather than relaunching an old generic recipe course.
→ A broad service becomes a timely, testable solution to a specific current problem.
Common mistakes
Starting With the Product
Building from an internal idea before examining current questions increases the chance of solving an irrelevant problem.
Ignoring the Cultural Moment
An offer can address a real need yet fail because its timing, language, or delivery clashes with present circumstances.
Recycling a Failed Idea
An offer that failed in favorable conditions is unlikely to improve merely because the market has become more uncertain.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for businesses that need to develop a relevant offer, resource, or delivery model quickly.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for high-risk innovations that require extensive safety, legal, or technical validation before release.
From the transcript
“Number one, what are people asking for?”
“Number two, ask yourself what's culturally relevant?”
“And then number three, what is something that's new that I could do on business?”
From the episode
Finding the Silver Lining of COVID-19 for Your Business