The following eleven Competitive Assessment Tools and Viewpoints for this Preliminary Assessment stage (Tools 10-20) are designed to explore new ideas and concepts and set in motion as many promising “seed” projects as possible. The cost of research and investigation is small here. A single worker may have a project or even work on several simultaneously. There are typically many avenues being explored and no valid idea or concept is neglected. The main consideration is whether the idea or concept is strategically appropriate, and whether the expertise available to address the concept or idea is adequate and part of the company’s core competencies. The output of this stage is the validation of concepts, physical principles and market features. Metrics for this process address the validity of results and whether or not basic principles are established. Competitive Assessment Tools and Viewpoints for this stage are designed to help a project leader and team quickly assess many possible approaches to the product or service. The tools also help the leader/team incorporate data from corporate databases and competitive analysis to speed the assessment process.