An Alternative Approach to Product Validation. Ask Yourself This One Question Instead.

"Why WOULDN’T someone use this?” Before I started B2BHive, a cross-promotion platform for SaaS companies, I asked myself this question until I ran out of answers. It's not exactly an in-depth, comprehensive process, I know. But sometimes the K.I.S.S approach can be faster and just as effective.
I simply summarized the main feature of the product and who it would help. Then, I listed every single reason that the target audience WOULDN'T use it.

If there was a "set if and forget it" way for a SaaS company to connect with multiple complimentary SaaS's to mutually cross promote each other's products to their respective users, why WOULDN’T they do it?”

Everyone talks about the importance of shipping fast but validating fast is equally as important. Re-framing the typical validation questions like "what problem DOES this solve?" to a negative like "why wouldn’t xyz person use it?" saves you from the rose-colored glasses and forces you to find solutions to flaws and future objections up front.

For example, when validating B2BHive, I could have stuck with the positive approach and listed how it exponentially increases a SaaS products target audience while saving founders time and money on marketing. Sure, these things are true, but focusing on value alone never would have led me to address this perceived benefit issue -

If B2BHive users felt there was an imbalance between how often they were promoting others vs. how often they were being promoted, the perceived value would be severely diminished, and they wouldn't use it.

To solve this, B2BHive was built using a mutual cross promotion system, ensuring that all users benefit equally and only promote those who are also promoting them.

The point is, I think validating from a negative perspective gives you an opportunity to break something before it exists. If you end up with more unanswered questions than solutions, good. You broke it. Move on to the next one. If you continue to ask yourself the question “why wouldn't they use it” and you’ve run out of answers, good! Stress test complete. Go build it.

As always, I would love to hear what my fellow Indie Hackers think about this validation approach as well as B2BHive.io. Subscriptions are free to everyone that signs up pre-launch. If you think this product would add value to your business, sign up at www.b2bhive.io/pricing and we'll let you know when we launch later this month. Thanks!