| Name | Ezekiel Mendoza |
|---|---|
| Explain your Big Idea in one sentence. | To develop an integrated smart workflow system that combines automated email sorting, templated responses, and project-specific dashboards. |
| 1. Pain of the Customer | |
| 1. Who’s your target customer? | Mid-level managers, mid sized companies, adminitrators |
| 2. What’s the job your customer is trying to perform? | Manage information and communication efficiently so they can focus on higher-value work. |
| 3. What’s the pain your customer is experiencing while doing the job? | The biggest pain customers face is being overwhelmed by repetitive administrative tasks, especially email overload and manual information tracking. These inefficiencies waste time, create frustration, and prevent them from focusing on higher-value work like leading projects, making decisions, and engaging with people. |
| 4. How big is the pain the customer is feeling? | 3 Jellyfish Sting |
| 5. How often are customers feeling the pain? | 3 Weekly |
| 6. What’s the pain score? | 9 |
| 7. How much market knowledge do you have to understand the pain? | JV |
| 2. Potential of the Market | |
| 1. How many customers are experiencing the pain? | 3 Thousands |
| 2. Sustainability? Can you provide the solution to customers profitably? | 2 I Hope So |
| 3. What’s the current overall size and growth of the market? | 2 Big & Slow |
| 4. Will your solution greatly affect the size and growth of the market? | 3 I think So |
| 5. What are the key growth drivers for the market? | The key growth drivers for this market are advances in automation and AI, the rise of remote and digital communication, and increasing pressure on companies to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Shifts in employee expectations and industry compliance needs also push organizations to adopt smarter tools that streamline repetitive administrative tasks |
| 6. What’s the financial potential of a business that solves the pain? | 8 Low Growth |
| 3. Prescription for the Pain | |
| 1. What’s the name of your proposed solution to the pain? | ClearPath – highlights clarity and direction, cutting through the noise of emails and admin work. |
| 2. Describe your proposed solution to the pain and its key benefits. | ClearPath is an integrated workflow platform that uses automation and AI to streamline communication and cut down on repetitive administrative tasks. By automatically sorting emails and documents by project, offering customizable templates for routine messages, and generating real-time dashboards, it reduces clutter and wasted time. This allows managers and staff to work more efficiently, stay organized, and focus on higher-value responsibilities like leading projects, making decisions, and engaging with people. |
| 3. How distinct is your solution from what already exits? | 2 Almost Identical |
| 4. What types of innovation are you using to differentiate yourself? |
|
| Other | |
| 5. What are the primary differentiators of your solution? | ClearPath stands out because it combines AI-powered email and document auto-sorting with customizable communication templates and real-time project dashboards in a single, easy-to-use platform. Unlike traditional tools that only handle one piece of the problem (such as email filters or project trackers), ClearPath integrates communication, task management, and reporting seamlessly. Its focus on reducing tedious administrative work—while freeing time for higher-value, people-focused tasks—gives it a unique edge over generic project management software. |
| 6. How much domain expertise do you have to solve the pain? | Varsity |
| 4. Positioning in the Market | |
| 1. What does the competitive landscape (jungle) look like? | Gorilla |
| 2. Name the current market gorilla. | Microsoft or Google |
| 2.1 No Market Gorilla | |
| 3. Are you competing head on with a gorilla for the same customer? | Partnering |
| 4. Who goes out of business if you win? | Niche admin-task tools go out of business if ClearPath wins, because managers will prefer one streamlined platform instead of juggling multiple small apps. |
| 5. Based on the proposed solution, what’s your market-entry strategy? | Bolt-on Strategy |
| Face Punch | Compete head-to-head with market leaders for existing customers with a solution that is similar to existing offerings (i.e., no innovation). |
| Greenfield | Create a brand new market category where competition is non-existent; create new customers and draw customers in from other markets. |
| Bolt-on | Extend an existing market by adding a product or service onto the market’s current offerings; partner with market leader (i.e., incremental innovation) |
| Geographic | Import proven business models and innovations from one country to another (i.e., geographic innovation). |
| Breakthrough | Develop products that are 10x better than market leaders; competing for same customers with high “switching costs” (i.e., 10x innovation). |
| Disruptive | Target unmet needs of underserved customers at the low end of an existing market; competitors flee up market rather than fight for the low end. |
| 5. Path to the Exit | |
| 1. How large is the universe of potential buyers for the company? | 3 Twenty |
| 2. Who are the top likely potential buyers of the company? | Top buyers are managers and administrators in small to mid-sized organizations who feel the daily pain of email overload and repetitive tasks but don’t have the budget or resources for heavy enterprise systems. |
| 3. Do you plan to engage in partnerships with them? If so, how? | Yes, ClearPath plans to engage in partnerships with potential buyers. The strategy is to first build pilot partnerships with small to mid-sized service companies and educational organizations, offering them discounted access in exchange for feedback, case studies, and testimonials. These early adopters become proof points that demonstrate ClearPath’s value in saving time and reducing administrative workload. As the platform grows, partnerships can expand to industry associations, trade groups, and professional networks, allowing ClearPath to reach a wider audience by embedding into existing communities that already serve your target users. |
| 4. Do you currently have access to relevant distribution channels? | No |
| 5. What’s the overall likelihood of the company becoming acquired? | 3 50/50 |
| The Big Idea Hypothesis | The output of this worksheet is to create a hypothesis that you can go out and test. Writing down a Big Idea Hypothesis forces you to focus and clarify what you believe before you talk to potential customers or build prototypes (see Nail It Then Scale It, p. 69-73). The best tool we have found for formulating your Big Idea Hypothesis is found in Geoffrey Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm. Moore calls it the “elevator message,” but we use it for the Big Idea Hypothesis. The steps of the Big Idea Hypothesis are:
EXAMPLE 1 – Using this format, let’s take a look at a potential Big Idea Hypothesis for Surf Air, a subscription-based airline startup headquartered in Santa Monica, CA. “(1) For the frequent, wealthy business traveler (2) who dislikes the airport experience, specifically checking in, going through security, waiting at the terminal, and picking up luggage, yet doesn’t have enough wealth to buy a private jet, (3) Surf Air is an airline that (4) allows the traveler to skip all the hassle of the airport experience and have access to a private jet experience without the cost. (5) Unlike traditional airlines, Surf Air (6) is a subscription-based airline, which employs small, luxury planes that can be used by customers like private jets.” EXAMPLE 2 – As an another example, the following is the Big Idea Hypothesis Paul Ahlstrom created for his software company, Knowlix. “(1) For the Internal IT Help Desk managers of large corporations who (2) have dissatisfied customers and are out of compliance with their Customers’ Service Level Agreements because each front-line support representative is unable to capture and share knowledge so they can answer customers’ technical questions and problems in a timely manner, (3) Knowlix is an IT Knowledge Management Solution that (4) allows the front-line IT Customer Support Reps to capture issues within their existing workflow and provide accurate answers in real-time to their corporate customers. (5) Unlike Inference, Knowlix (6) integrates large amounts of unstructured data into the existing workflow of Remedy, Peregrine, and other leading IT Help Desk systems, thus allowing the frontline support rep to answer the question on the first call.” |
| Your Big Idea Hypothesis | Now that you have a foundational understanding of the Big Idea Hypothesis, let’s create one for your big idea (see Nail It Then Scale It, p. 71). By using the answers you provided on the other side of this Canvas, you can piece together a Big Idea Hypothesis that will help focus your efforts and share a clear message as you talk about your big idea with others. So let’s go retrieve each step of the Big Idea Hypothesis. |
| 1. For (target customer): | Mid-level managers, mid-sized companies, administrators |
| 2. Who (statement of monetizable pain): | The biggest pain customers face is being overwhelmed by repetitive administrative tasks, especially email overload and manual information tracking. These inefficiencies waste time, create frustration, and prevent them from focusing on higher-value work like leading projects, making decisions, and engaging with people. |
| 3. The (product name) is a (product category): | ClearPath – highlights clarity and direction, cutting through the noise of emails and admin work. |
| 4. That (statement of key benefit): | ClearPath is an integrated workflow platform that uses automation and AI to streamline communication and cut down on repetitive administrative tasks. By automatically sorting emails and documents by project, offering customizable templates for routine messages, and generating real-time dashboards, it reduces clutter and wasted time. This allows managers and staff to work more efficiently, stay organized, and focus on higher-value responsibilities like leading projects, making decisions, and engaging with people. |
| 5. Unlike (primary competitive alternative): | Microsoft or Google |
| 6. Our Solution (solution and primary differentiation): | ClearPath stands out because it combines AI-powered email and document auto-sorting with customizable communication templates and real-time project dashboards in a single, easy-to-use platform. Unlike traditional tools that only handle one piece of the problem (such as email filters or project trackers), ClearPath integrates communication, task management, and reporting seamlessly. Its focus on reducing tedious administrative work—while freeing time for higher-value, people-focused tasks—gives it a unique edge over generic project management software. |
| With all the steps identified and written down, you can now stitch them together to create one, unified Big Idea Hypothesis. Give it a try below. | Mid-level managers, mid-sized companies, administrators The biggest pain customers face is being overwhelmed by repetitive administrative tasks, especially email overload and manual information tracking. These inefficiencies waste time, create frustration, and prevent them from focusing on higher-value work like leading projects, making decisions, and engaging with people. ClearPath – highlights clarity and direction, cutting through the noise of emails and admin work. ClearPath is an integrated workflow platform that uses automation and AI to streamline communication and cut down on repetitive administrative tasks. By automatically sorting emails and documents by project, offering customizable templates for routine messages, and generating real-time dashboards, it reduces clutter and wasted time. This allows managers and staff to work more efficiently, stay organized, and focus on higher-value responsibilities like leading projects, making decisions, and engaging with people. Microsoft or Google ClearPath stands out because it combines AI-powered email and document auto-sorting with customizable communication templates and real-time project dashboards in a single, easy-to-use platform. Unlike traditional tools that only handle one piece of the problem (such as email filters or project trackers), ClearPath integrates communication, task management, and reporting seamlessly. Its focus on reducing tedious administrative work—while freeing time for higher-value, people-focused tasks—gives it a unique edge over generic project management software. |
| Generated PDF Link |