A few thoughts here:
-There are many more ways to fail with a business than there are to succeed - unfathomably more. I tend to think that a strategy of "cross off all the possible failure modes, until you're left with only success" is a flawed strategy for that reason.
-That's also the reason that historically and empirically, entrepreneurs who succeed tend to have prior experience with their market through their employment. More recently, "lean startup" techniques have come about that allow you to gain a deep understanding of the market through rapid testing, market research and talking to your market. I recommend you read Running Lean by Ash Maurya and The Startup Owners Manual by Steve Blank for more on that.
-In terms of first principles, there's also been a ton of prior work done and no need to invent the wheel. There's TONS of work out there on business strategy and what makes a succesfull business, but I think if you read Crossing the Chasm by Clayton Christensen, and The Future is Predictable by Simon Wardley, You'll be set.
Entrepreneurial ideas come and go. Some I don't give a second thought to. Others I commence market research for, examine the competitive landscape and explore the feasibility for development. This can be time consuming, and has yet to have produced any tangible, commercialized product.
I figure it's about time I devote the time I would spend to exploiting my existing repertoire of knowledge to develop an idea, to exploring parsimonious, efficient techniques for assessing viability.
In my search I found [Autopsy.io], a startup graveyard. Founders describe why their startups failed, concisely. It made me think about my past startup ideas and why they haven't flied.
I'm going to work that out, put it in a spreadsheet and regress to whatever problem keeps popping up - then, I'll work on improving my subject matter knowledge in that domain - for example, if its the feasibility of implementing with existing technology - I might learn more about the current technological landscape in general. Or, more about existing services for investors, if my product is a service for investors, like my last startup idea, which I have autopsied in detail here
I just thought I'd share my general strategy for anyone who'd want to copy this procedure for startup autopsy. Please use this space to suggest other appropriate diagnostic methods.