Why it is important to test the idea?
More often when we come up with cool idea (next Uber, Facebook, Google) we tend to hide it, thinking that someone will stole it. And even if we share, we share it with our close friends, family or relatives. But it is really difficult to say that they will objectively judge the idea. With high probability they will just say that the idea is good and you should try to implement it.
But here is a problem. Because you didn’t test your idea, you don’t know the weak points of it, how to improve it, or is it worth spending your time and effort trying to develop something that isn’t valuable to others. The first thing after coming up with “cool” idea is to sell it to customers. That is right! You have to talk with your future customers. Know what they think about idea. Does it really solve their problem? Or they don’t have it at all. If idea doesn’t solve problem, what are their real problems. You need to ask at least 20+ customers, and only after completion of all of homeworks you can start developing the most critical features of your project.
PS: I love the image above , because it shows the reality of idea generation. The first idea that come to mind is not always the best. You have test, improve your idea before launching it.