Companion to "The five questions" and "Score your own idea."
One idea, one page, one hour. Score the beginner's version of the business, not the master's, with a specific customer in mind.
Idea scored
Date
Ten-task inventory (R = machine could replace, A = machine only accelerates)
Task (the ten you would repeat most in year one)
R / A
Hours share
Deliverable row: the task that produces what the customer pays for (the clean, the article, the edit, the signed loan)
%
Second customer-visible task, if there is one (the walkthrough, the revision, the report)
%
Finding customers, channel by channel
%
Quoting and pricing the work
%
Scheduling and routing
%
Invoicing and getting paid
%
Production work, top activity by hours
%
Production work, second activity
%
Customer communication between jobs
%
Record keeping, taxes, compliance (and whatever else you would spend Tuesdays doing)
%
The five questions (start at 4, the agnostic middle)
Question
Your answer
Adjustment
Running total
1. The deliverable. What is the customer paying for: bytes, a physical outcome, or accountability? Pure bytes +2; mostly outcome or accountability −2; mixed holds
2. The entry floor. Could a beginner with free AI tools produce a version of the average offer that average customers accept? If yes +2
3. The demand gate. Unpoliced platform +2; policed platform +1; referrals, own list, human-first channels −1
4. The blame. Licensed, insured, present human absorbs it −2; real but partial −1; nothing to subtract otherwise
5. The task split. Share of first-year hours on machine-doable tasks: over half +2; a quarter to half +1; under a quarter hold
Arithmetic: start at 4 + adjustments = , clamped to 0–10. Final score: / 10
The bands
Band
Verdict
Read
0 to 3
Build it
The machine barely touches the value; software arrives as margin. Ordinary small-business risks are the only kind
4 to 6
Build with adaptation
The machine does real work inside the value chain; a durable human layer remains. Build the deflection on purpose
7 to 8
Closed for beginners
The entry lane is the machine's lane. Experts may thrive; a beginner would compete directly with the tool
9 to 10
No lane
The deliverable is the machine. Obsoleted, not eaten
Sanity checks
☐ Scored the beginner's version of the business, not the master's; the machine eats floors before ceilings
☐ Scored with a specific customer in mind, one you could actually name or picture
☐ One blunt friend ran the same rubric on the idea and the numbers were compared
Dated verdict box
Score / date
/ 10 on
Fact that drove it, 1
Fact that drove it, 2
Fact that drove it, 3
Blunt friend's independent score
/ 10
Scores are snapshots, not prophecies. The method tells you where an idea stands today, with the tools that exist today. Re-run it when the ground shifts: a platform changes its rules, a model starts doing your deliverable acceptably, or prices in the niche start sagging.