CHAPTER 3

Feasibility Analysis
OPENING PROFILE

MORPHOLOGY
The Value of Validating a Business Idea
Web: www.morphologygames.com
Twitter: morphologygames
Facebook: Morphology Games

I
t all started on a snowy Minnesota night in 2002. Kate Ryan Reiling was hanging out
with friends and they decided to play a board game. They were bored with the board
games they had to pick from, so they took wooden sticks from
one game, glass beads from another, and took turns picking words
from the dictionary, and the person who picked the word would try
to depict the word with the sticks and beads to see if the others
could guess the word. Reiling thought it was a really neat idea and
asked the group if she could run with it and investigate it further.
They said absolutely.
To flesh out the idea, Reiling started accumulating small
objects for the game, such as shapes, strings, rocks, and anything
that could be used to help depict a word. Luckily, there was a thrift
shop near where she lived, where she could sift through these
types of items and find what she needed. She also started learning
about the board game industry. She went to Toys “R” Us, for
example, to peruse the board game aisle, to see how different
games were set up and packaged. She put together an early
version of her game, which she named Fluster, so she could ask
friends to play it and get their reaction. (The name of the game was
later changed to Morphology because Fluster was already trade-
marked.) Morphology is played in teams. The basic idea is that
each team has a person who chooses a word and attempts to
build the word in such a way that his or her teammates can guess
what it is. As a team guesses correctly, they move across the
board and the first to the finish line wins. Reiling knew Morphology
was engaging when she’d have friends over to play and the next
day one of them would say something like, “I was thinking about
the word butterfly and I wish I had used this piece . . .” or she’d be
at a cocktail party and someone would start playfully arranging
their food in a manner that depicted a word, just like they did in the
game. Morphology had a certain type of stickiness that Reiling
interpreted as a very positive thing.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter you should be
ready to:
1. Explain what a feasibility analysis is and
why it’s important.
2. Discuss the proper time to complete a
feasibility analysis when developing an
entrepreneurial venture.
3. Describe the purpose of a
product/service feasibility analysis and
the two primary issues that a proposed
business should consider in this area.
4. Explain a concept statement and its
contents.
5. Describe the purpose of a buying
intentions survey and how it’s
administered.
6. Explain the importance of library,
Internet, and gumshoe research.
7. Describe the purpose of industry/market
feasibility analysis and the two primary
issues to consider in this area.
8. Discuss the characteristics of an
attractive industry.
9. Describe the purpose of organizational
feasibility analysis and list the two
primary issues to consider in this area.
10. Explain the importance of financial
feasibility analysis and list the most
critical issues to consider in this area.

77
78 PART 2 ! DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS IDEAS

From 2002 until 2007, Reiling was employed full-time but continued to ask people
to play Morphology so she could watch them play and collect feedback. After people
played the game, she would ask them to fill out a short questionnaire about their
experience. During this period, she observed the game being played many times,
switching out game pieces when she observed that one piece worked better than
another. She also carefully observed how adding a particular piece or subtracting a
particular piece changed the pace and enjoyment level of the game. She eventually
created 15 sample games that she put together in her basement. She went beyond
family and friends and sent copies of the game to people she didn’t know to get their
feedback. The response was excellent. She continued working on Morphology. On
one occasion she asked people running a local coffee shop, which had lots of board
games available for its patrons to play, to schedule a time when customers could pilot
test her game. Reiling remembers that on the day the pilot test was taking place, a
man stuck his head in the door of the shop and asked what everyone was doing that
was so fun. He was invited in to play and when he left, handed Reiling one of his busi-
ness cards and asked to be contacted when the game was available for purchase.
This type of experience was very motivating for Reiling. Reiling also wasn’t bashful
about asking people who were in a position to give her good quality feedback for
advice. For example, when she was working on Morphology’s packaging design, she
called several stores that carried board games asking for general information on the
board game industry and packaging. She incorporated the feedback she received into
the final packaging design for the game.
To bolster her business knowledge, Reiling decided to pursue an MBA at the Tuck
School at Dartmouth College. MBA students at Tuck complete a first-year project, in
teams, and Reiling saw this as an opportunity to do additional work on Morphology. So
she organized a team and convinced the members to focus on Morphology. The project
resulted in a business plan and an investor presentation for Morphology. The team drilled
deep in regard to the board game industry, an exercise that was particularly instructive to
Reiling. Her group at Tuck also did a lot of play testing of the game.
After finishing her MBA in 2009, Reiling returned to Minnesota as the women’s
soccer coach at Macalester College in St. Paul. In 2010, Reiling took Morphology to
the New York Toy Fair, which is the largest trade show in the United States for toys
and games. It was well received, and was one of the top picks of the fair according to
TD Monthly. It was also nominated as one of the best party games according to
Games. Prior to previewing Morphology at the New York Toy Fair, Reiling figures she
watched over 400 people play Morphology and collected 124 user surveys. Dozens of
iterations in Morphology’s game pieces, rules, style of play, and so forth took place as
a result of this testing. Buoyed by Morphology’s positive feedback, in mid-2010
Reiling was able to raise $150,000 to create 5,000 copies of Morphology for her initial
inventory. Morphology is now being sold in more than 40 stores across the United
States, with some distribution in Canada. Reiling hopes to have Morphology in
additional stores soon.1

I
n this chapter, we’ll discuss the importance of feasibility analysis. Failure to
conduct a feasibility analysis can result in disappointing outcomes, as illus-
trated in this chapter’s “What Went Wrong?” feature (which deals with the
failure of many eBay drop-off stores).