Ask IH: How Can I Learn More About 3 MVP Ideas?
I have 3 MVP ideas, each for different markets. I estimate 3 - 5 weeks to build each MVP + landing page, so 2 - 3 months in total.
I always make the mistake of diving right into building something for 3 - 4 months and then launching and giving up when the launch is underwhelming.
This time I want to do two things differently:
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By doing 3 launches I could at least compare them and declare a winner.
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Seeing if there's a way to validate the ideas before building the MVP
So, is there something I could do to validate these ideas before committing to a build?
I just gave a talk on idea validation and wrote about it here: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/idea-validation-slides-from-my-hustle-con-talk-5581d0ba95
There are tons of questions you can ask about each idea beforehand, as well as some other ways to dip your toe in the water, that should give you a better notion as to which idea is the most promising. I would literally just attempt to score them. Then work on the one that scores the highest first.
If you ask no other questions, I'd ask these four:
Also, you don't necessarily have to start with a launch. If you can truly build an MVP in a few weeks, and it's solving a valuable problem for a specific customer that you know how to find, I'd highly recommend just selling it one-on-one, learning a ton, and making tweaks before you do a big launch.
(This is mostly B2B advice, or B2C advice in a sector where consumers actually spend money to solve problems e.g. education, housing, transportation, etc. If you have some sort of free app that you're hoping will blow up and go viral, then the advice above won't necessarily apply… but I also advise against taking that path as an indie hacker.)
Finally, I agree with what @HenriNext said about MVPs. 3-5 weeks actually isn't that fast, and estimates tend to be optimistic, so that usually turns into 8-16 weeks. There are all sorts of examples of successful sites that launched their MVPs quite quickly:
Thanks! This is incredibly helpful, especially those 4 questions.
One example you gave mentioned Google ads. Do you have any opinions on where to get feedback on your idea? Generally, I've heard of two different approaches:
I've done #2 before and it's easier for me to do than #1. But I've heard some people say that paid traffic is not a good representative sample of the market you're going after, so you'll get misleading feedback.
Well, MVP definition is pretty much "the fastest way to validate idea", so you are essentially asking "is there anything faster than the fastest way"... :)
But MVP does not have to be an app. See the famous Dropbox video.
Personally i think that you can cross off 95% ideas as "not commercially viable" without building MVP if you just think a bit.
Pretend you already have the product
Ok.. Now sell it, either with a landing page or with direct sales. Direct sales is better because you can get more in depth feedback
Or ask for advice from people and try to find out if they would pay for you product when it's ready
Easier said than done, it's what I'm trying to do right now as well
Consider listening to the Steli Elli podcast here on IndieHackers!
I love that idea.
The best way to validate a product idea is to talk to the products potential customers.
Find 10 customers in each of these 3 markets and have a conversation with each of them. Ask them if they would pay for your idea if it existed.
Find out what their pain points are. If 10 customers in the same industry have the same pain point then odds are that it's industry wide.
Once you figure out a common pain point then you shift from having an "idea" to having a solution to a specific problem.
The above advice works best for B2B SaaS products generally. What are the industries?
Thanks @Shane325 !
How did you find those first 10 customers for Build Easy? Were they people you knew personally or people you found online either through ads or forums?
I'm not sure the industries, but here's the general problem space for each:
I had an existing network of construction companies before I started Build Easy so naturally I started there. Construction is also heavily referral driven so every time I meet with a company I ask them to refer me to 2-3 other companies.
This idea seems a bit vague still? I assume there is an active credit card research community online already (https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/ e.g.). Maybe start there.
Like google docs?
That hacker news post has got a lot of product suggestions in the comments already.
I like the credit card idea. I'm assuming that would be using A.I.?
Simplest way would be a landing page with a "purchase" button. Apart from that, there are services like:
Javelin
QuickMVP
RoastMe
SlingshotLaunch
Do you typically drive traffic to that page with SEM and Paid Social?
Yeah that's how I've done it.
Whatever they are and how awesome they sound... I will always just go out and ask people (potential customers) what they think of them. I then ask what they'd pay. I then ask are they willing to pay in advance? If they say no, I then re-think what I'm doing. Nothing is built.