Validation
Testing whether a business idea will run before the money goes in, for anyone with an idea they haven’t paid to build yet.
Validation is evidence gathered before the building starts. Friends who say they’d buy are not customers; a stranger who pays a deposit or joins a waitlist is closer. A landing page and $100 of ads can show whether anyone clicks before $5,000 goes into stock. The Idea Inspection starts here, checking demand, price, costs, reach and time one part at a time.
How to validate a business idea before you spend money sets out five tests in order of cost. Customer interview questions to test a business idea is the script for the first, and how to pre-sell a product before you make it covers the last, the one that asks for money.
Guides in this section 3
2-1
Customer interview questions to test a business idea
A short script built on what people did last time, the four questions that only get compliments, where to find ten strangers, and how to tally the answers.
2-2
How to pre-sell a product before you make it
Take real pre-orders before you build: set the pass mark, write an offer with a ship date and refund, and keep within the FTC’s rules on delays and refunds.
2-3
How to validate a business idea before you spend money
Five tests in order of cost, from ten conversations to a pre-sale, each with a pass mark set first, so you know whether to build it, change it or drop it.
In this section
- Demand tests
- Customer interviews
- Competitor research
- Market sizing for small businesses
- Landing-page tests
- Pre-sales and waitlists
- Surveys
- Minimum viable products
- Pricing tests
- Reading the results
- Changing course or dropping an idea