Projects and the build journey

A project keeps everything about one product idea in one place, from the first check of the problem to your first customers. Your projects are under "Projects" in the "Validate and build" group of the menu.

Who can use projects

Projects are part of the paid plans. On the free plan, the Projects page says "Projects start on Basic". Basic holds a set number of active projects at a time. Pro and above have no plan limit on active projects, only a fair-use limit on how many projects you keep in total. See Pricing for the numbers.

Start a project

1. On a report, click "Start a project".
2. Check the "Name" (it starts as the niche's title). You can add a "One-line pitch (optional)" and a "Site (optional)".
3. Click "Create project". The project page opens, already linked to that niche.

You can also click "New project" on the Projects page to start from scratch and link things later. When "Validate" is in your menu, a finished evaluation there has "Start a project" too, which links your evaluated idea.

The journey

The "Journey" lays out the steps from an idea to your first customers, in five stages. The step you are on is marked "Now", and the "Next step" card says what to do, with a link to where you do it when the step happens in TrendGap.

• Validate: "Link the problem", "Check the evidence", "Talk to five people with the problem".
• Plan: "Scope the first version", "Estimate the build", "Pick a stack".
• Build: "Generate the build pack", "Build the first version".
• Launch: "Choose a name and a domain", "Prepare the launch kit", "Get the landing page ready", "Work through the launch checklist".
• Grow: "Find the first customers", "Watch the market".

Most steps tick themselves off when your project data shows them, such as a linked niche. You can also click "Mark done", "Skip" or "Reopen". Done steps add their weight to your journey progress out of 100. No AI is involved: the rules are written on the page.

Built on, tasks, checklist and decisions

• "Built on" links the project to a niche (paste a TrendGap report link), an evaluated idea ("Link an evaluated idea"), your claim ("Link a claim", see Community and claims) and your site.
• "Tasks" holds the features of your first version. Rate each for "Impact", "Confidence" and "Effort" from 1 to 5, then click "Order by priority".
• "Launch checklist": click "Add the launch checklist", then tick items off as you go, or mark one "Not needed".
• "Decisions": write what you decided and why, so you do not decide it twice. "Record the product's name" adds a decision where you write the name you chose.

Kept results and monitoring

When you run one of the build and launch tools on a project, its result is kept under "Kept results". To add a finished run from your tool history, click "Keep a result".

Under "Monitoring", click "Set up monitoring" to add watches for the project's niche, its top competitors and keywords, the idea, your claimed niche and your site. These watches count toward your watchlist limits. Monitoring opens when the watchlist is available to you.

Project settings

• "Weekly next step in the inbox": every Monday, the journey's next step for this project lands in your Inbox, when the Inbox is in your menu.
• "Also by email": you get the next step by email too, in one weekly email for all such projects. It is sent only while "Getting started" emails are on in Settings under "Email", and it names no project.
• "Automatic monitoring": when you link something, the project adds the watches it needs for the niche, its top competitors and keywords, the idea and the site, within your watch limits.
• "Re-grade the landing page weekly": on Pro and above, once the project has a site, it is graded each week. Each grade spends the landing page grader's credits.

Archive, share and delete

• The "Project actions" menu has "Rename or edit the pitch", "Archive" and "Delete". An archived project is read-only and frees its slot. Click "Restore" to work on it again.
• If your plan holds fewer active projects than you have, the newest show as "Paused (over your plan)". They are read-only, never deleted, and come back when your plan has room.
• "Share link" makes a read-only link to the parts you choose. See Share, PDF and export.
• "Delete" removes the tasks, checklist, decisions and the watches the project added (unless another project uses them). Tool runs stay in your history.