Summary
The pre-flight check runs on Premium assessments. FirstIgnite reads your input while you are still building the assessment and reports back on each evaluation before you generate. The card appears on the Mode and Details steps and takes about 30 to 60 seconds.
Select View details to see each dimension of your input marked Already covered, Could add more, or Needs more input. There is one dimension per evaluation in your template, named after that evaluation. Expand any row for the specific details worth asking the inventor for.
The check tells you whether your input is missing anything that would make the result more accurate. It does not score your technology and it does not change any score.
Nothing here stops you. Select Generate anyway and the assessment still produces a result, though it will be less specific in the areas you skipped.
The Mode step of the build, showing the Ready to go pill in the header, the pre-flight card with its per-status counts across eight dimensions, and the assessment mode options underneath.
When to use
You are building a Premium assessment and want to know where it will be thin before you commit to it.
One evaluation matters more to your decision than the others, and you want to know your input supports it.
You can still reach the inventor. Once an assessment runs, you cannot change its input.
You are working through a stack of disclosures and want to catch the ones with thin input before spending runs on them.
Know Before You Go
The pre-flight check runs on Premium assessments only. Basic runs generate without it.
The check needs something to read. Enter text in Technology Context or upload at least one document on the first step of the build.
Keep a line open to the inventor. Most of what the check asks for lives in the inventor's head, not in the disclosure.
For how to create an assessment, see Tech Assessment: what it is and how it works.
Step-by-step instructions
Complete the first step of the Tech Assessment build with your pasted text or uploaded documents, then select Next.
FirstIgnite starts reading your input while you continue.
Read the card, and the status pill in the header.
The pill is the quickest read: it turns to Ready to go once the check finishes, and the card beside it says in one line what is missing. While the check runs, the card says it is reviewing your input. It takes about 30 to 60 seconds. The same card stays on Details, so you can keep working and come back to it.
Select View details.
The control then reads Hide details. The card lists the dimensions it reviewed, one for each evaluation in your template and named after it, with one of three statuses, described below. A status describes how far your input covers that dimension. It is not a score, and it says nothing about the technology itself.
Read the status against each dimension.
Already covered. Your input is solid there and the assessment can run on it as it stands.
Could add more. One extra detail would sharpen the result. The assessment still runs without it.
Needs more input. Your input does not give the assessment enough to work with on that dimension.
Expand a row to see what the check wants.
Each row names specific things worth asking the inventor for. Where your input is already strong on that dimension, the row says what it has to work with.
Return to Context and add what you can.
Paste the detail into Technology Context, or upload a further document. Select Back to move between steps.
Select Generate Assessment.
If an evaluation still needs more input, FirstIgnite asks you to confirm. Select Keep editing to go back and improve the input, or select Generate anyway to run it as it stands.
The input-quality card on the final build step, reading Ready to go, with a count of dimensions by status, the legend explaining the three dots, and the first dimension rows listed.
Tips
Spend two minutes on the suggestions. One sentence from the inventor about performance data or prior public disclosure usually moves a score more than any setting you can change. The check looks for exactly that kind of detail: what only an inventor knows, and what a disclosure rarely records.
Treat Needs more input as the priority. Could add more is worth acting on when that evaluation carries weight in your decision, and worth skipping when it does not.
Ask the inventor once for everything the card raises, rather than going back per evaluation.
If several evaluations need more input, consider holding the run until you have answers. The result will be vaguest in the areas that need more information.
Common issues
No pre-flight card appears. The check runs on Premium assessments only. Basic runs generate without it. For what else changes between the two, see Basic and Premium: what changes.
You reached Generate Assessment while the check was still running. FirstIgnite asks whether to wait. Select Wait to let the check finish, or Generate now to skip it and start the assessment.
Every evaluation says it needs more input. Check that you attached your full source material. The check reads your pasted text and your uploaded documents, so a short summary gives it little to work with. Upload the full disclosure instead of summarizing it.
You generated with poor input before reading the card. The assessment runs on what you submitted, and it records that input permanently. Create a new assessment with the better input to get the new results.
Frequently asked questions
Does the pre-flight check use up a run?
No. It reads the input you have already entered in the build. You spend the run when you select Generate Assessment.
Will Needs more input stop me from generating?
No. Nothing in the check blocks the run. You can select Generate anyway, and the assessment produces a result either way. The areas you skipped will be less specific than the rest.
Does the pre-flight check score my technology?
No. The check looks at your input, not at the technology. It does not produce a score, change a score, or judge whether the technology is promising. A status of Needs more input means the assessment is missing something that would make its result more accurate. The assessment scores your technology only after you select Generate Assessment.
Does acting on the suggestions change the scores directly?
Not by itself. Adding material does not change how the assessment scores. What moves a score is the extra detail the assessment then has to work with.
Why does the check ask for things a disclosure would not contain?
It asks for those on purpose. The check targets the detail only an inventor holds, because that is what the assessment cannot find on its own. Performance figures and whether the work has already been publicly disclosed are common examples. For what the assessment can reach without you, see Where the assessment's data comes from.
What do the scores in the finished assessment mean?
FirstIgnite scores each evaluation against its own rubric. See Evaluations: scope, limits and rubrics.