Incy TemplatesCopy–Improve–Differentiate Assessment
A clear verdict — Copy, Improve or Differentiate — plus the specific evidence that verdict requires before you proceed.
Classify your idea as Copy, Improve or Differentiate so you know how much evidence you actually need before committing.
Part of the Product Idea Assessor family. Also see: Product Idea Assessor: the Guide, Product Idea Assessor.
- Version
- 1.1
- Last updated
- 2 Jun 2026
- Completion time
- 20–30 min
- Formats
- markdown
About this template
The Copy–Improve–Differentiate method (see the Product Idea Assessor guide) separates ideas that copy a working model, ideas that improve on an existing one, and ideas that introduce genuinely new behaviour. Each category carries a different risk profile and needs a different amount of validation before you commit real time or money. This worksheet walks you through the classification and hands you the evidence checklist that follows from your answer.
Instructions
- State your idea in one sentence — specific enough that a stranger could picture it.
- Work through Copy, Improve and Differentiate below and pick the one that actually fits, not the one that feels most flattering. If you're unsure, look for the manual or ad hoc version people already use to approximate it — that's usually the tell.
- Answer the four evidence questions honestly, based on what you actually know right now, not what you assume.
- Read your verdict against the evidence checklist for your category, and write down the one thing you'll do next.
What you'll need
Your idea in one sentence. Whatever you already know about how people currently handle this problem — even if it's "I'm not sure yet."
Who it's for
Founders and product people deciding how cautiously to approach an idea.
When to use it
Use immediately after the Product Idea Snapshot, before writing a business plan or building anything.
When not to use it
Not a substitute for actual customer interviews — it tells you how much evidence you need, not whether you have it yet.
What's included
A one-page classification worksheet (Copy / Improve / Differentiate, with the tell-tale sign for each), four evidence questions, and a checklist of what evidence each category still needs before you commit real time or money.
- Copy–Improve–Differentiate Assessment (Markdown, AI-agent-ready) (markdown)
Completed example
Idea: Shift Swap — a shared, notified shift-swap board for retail and hospitality teams. Post a shift, get it covered, without a group text.
Classification: Improve. Covering a shift is already something people do — informally, by texting five colleagues and hoping one replies. Nobody needs persuading that shift-covering is a thing; the proposal is a faster, more visible way to do it, not a new behaviour.
Evidence answers:
- Problem evidence: Believed, not yet confirmed — the founder has personal experience as a former shift supervisor, but hasn't yet asked anyone else.
- Behaviour evidence: Strong — the group-text workaround already exists everywhere this problem shows up.
- Differentiation clarity: A shared, notified board instead of individual texts to five people.
- Target specificity: Shift managers and hourly workers at independent cafés and small retail/hospitality teams (roughly 5–50 people).
Verdict: Improve, moderate evidence. Next action: run Customer Discovery Kit to confirm the weakness (last-minute uncovered shifts, over-asking the same people) is actually painful, not just personally annoying.
Interpreting your result
If you picked Improve, you should be able to name the specific weakness in the existing approach — and be honest about whether you've actually confirmed it's painful, or you're assuming it is because it annoys you. If you picked Differentiate, go looking for the ad hoc version people already use before proceeding. If you can't find any trace of people trying to solve this themselves, that's not a dead end, but it does mean you need considerably more evidence before committing serious time.
Next: run this same classification interactively with the Product Idea Assessor Tool, or move straight to Customer Discovery Kit once you know what evidence you need.
Licence
Single-purchaser licence covering personal and commercial use, including client work. Redistribution or resale of the template itself is not permitted.
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This template is also included in the Idea Validation Pack bundle.
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