I start by checking the overall appeal of their ANN and bounty thread here on the forum (also, how popular the thread is in terms of how many people read it and how much that number is increasing). I follow up by checking out their website and if it looks good to me, I start reading the whitepaper for the first (quick) time and get some sense of what the project is all about. Then I check their social media pages (twitter, Facebook, reddit, etc.), how many times they are posting per day and if they have some quality content (quality over quantity for me, one post a day is enough if it has some meaning). I also look at the numbers of followers, likes, members. There needs to be an "organic" community if you know what I mean. People need to be involved in the project, not that they landed on the project by referrals or even worse by accident.
Somewhere in between I also check out the team and their past references (where they worked, on what and with whom), meaning if they hold some strong positions in the "cryptoworld". Also, having big names for advisors can only be good for the project. Then, checking out reviews by ICO review sites and blogs comes into place. Ratings, articles or everything related to the project is important. I also check if they are featured on some spreadsheets by well-known YouTube ICO reviewers or if someone has them mentioned in their YouTube video that gathered a lot of views.
If everything above satisfies me, then I read the whitepaper more thoroughly the second time. I usually then start bounty hunting for that project and hope it will succeed.
I probably forgot to mention something as there are a lot of factors involved, but these are the important ones for me at the moment. Hope this helps!
