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9 Comments

What do you consider 'Idea validated'?

Hey

During the idea validation step, what/when do you consider an idea validated?

A certain CTR?
100 email sign-ups?

Curious to see what everyone thinks!

  1. 8

    I've been meaning to write a post about this but I think "idea validation" is less a state that you reach and more of a process of increasing certainty.

    Like, maybe you start out seeing a few people having a problem at your work or in online forums. Okay, your certainty that there's a business opportunity there increases a bit. You talk to more people and you find more people with this problem. Okay, your certainty increases a bit more.

    Then maybe you put up a landing page for a product to solve this problem and get some email signups. Your certainty that there is a valuable problem here increases more. Your certainty that your specific way of solving that problem is worthwhile also increases.

    Then you make a basic product and ask people to pay. One person pays and your certainty raises more. 10 people pay and your certainty raises a lot more. 100 people pay and your certainty is quite high that you're solving a valuable problem for people.

    ——

    Also, it always depends on what idea you're trying to validate. I think people here on IH tend to mean "validate that solving a certain problem with a specific product or service is something people will pay for". But that's often only one part of a good business.

    You can also validate distribution channels ("will this channel reach my intended audience?") or validate the market ("about how much money is spent in total by my customers?") or heck even validate specific features of a product ("will my users care about this specific feature or will it bring in more revenue?").

    Whatever you're validating, it's more of an ongoing process. The more positive feedback in that process the less risk you're taking.

  2. 6

    willingness to pay.
    Ask for the $ early on

  3. 5

    Short answer - 10 paid users.

    Long answer - Assuming 'idea validation' is how likely you are going to reach $1000 MRR, the one most important metric is engagement from users (email feedback or users posting on social media or users actively using your product) and your energy to keep the momentum until you hit $1000 MRR.

  4. 3

    If something works, you will immediately notice that marketing your product becomes very easy.

    I had an instant hit after a series of failed products.

    You post it in the right spot and people just start using it and come back by themselves, contact you, etc.

  5. 2

    I just created a thread on this! For me if I can get at least 100 email signups it’s worth it to at least build an MVP. From there it all depends.

    https://www.indiehackers.com/post/building-a-microsaas-in-public-bca2a372c9

  6. 2

    The first five early customers to adopt your idea are your most important asset and the ones who confirm your validation process assumptions.

  7. 2

    Revenue. Not committed revenue, but actual cash in my pocket.

    Sign ups might prove interest, but only revenue (money transferred to you) shows that the pain is solved and the idea is fully validated.

    CTR, signups, etc, that's only partial validation to me.

  8. 2

    'Purchasing" is greater than "Purchase Intent" is greater than "Interest".

    When you ask potential customers, "would you buy this", you get a result that is always less than the result you get if you ask for actual payment. There is a hierarchy of result accuracy that comes from validation efforts.

    However, anything is better than nothing.

    The goal is inform your next move. Personally, I've used many different ways of validating my belief in product plans. I'm also a huge proponent of ongoing validation and interaction with customers. Sometimes it expeditious to do something simple and sometimes it's too important not to have a high degree of certainty in our results.

    I don't think that there is a one size fits all scenario.

    I will say that I have seen more people fail due to analysis paralysis than I have from people keeping things moving. Making mistakes is almost always better than no doing anything.

    Hope that helps...

  9. 1

    when there are competitors who're making money

  10. 5

    This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

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