Ask IH: How do I measure idea validation?
Hi everyone!
I’m working on a new project - A subscription based monthly curated learning digest for Software Dev Managers/Product Manager and aspiring ones.
Reading/listening/viewing freely available content on the web is useful. However, it can be time consuming. The pain I’m trying to solve is to eliminate unnecessary time wasted in searching the web for learning resources.
You can read more in an earlier forum post
It’s been a few weeks since I started promoting the beta landing page to get interested people on an email list - have got a few subscribers. However, not sure how to proceed next.
The landing page: http://trrove.com
Looking for some valuable answers from IH community.
- How long should/can I keep this in beta? In other words, how many sign-ups should I ideally have to assume that the idea is worth taking forward?
- Can successful IH members share their initial count of beta sign-up numbers? How many days did you wait to validate? Beta to paying customer conversation rate?
- What do you think of the idea itself?
Thank you very much.
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@AceK, Wow! those are some very comprehensive, insightful and useful answers. It really helps to understand the various unknowns that a person needs to uncover to establish an online business. Many thriving businesses might not necessary know all this - however, if you dig into the fundamentals, one can uncover many synergies to the points you make here. Awesome! thank you!
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This is awesome advice! Like an example tailored sneak peak at what a dev or a software manager would get.
Thanks one87...! A sample is what I'm currently working on.
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What?
Please don’t do that.
You’re building a landing page with YOUR assumptions.
Why would you spend $500 on your assumption without ever talking to a potential customer.
How would you expect an untested page to convert at 50%?
The best pages that have been rigorously tested with thousands of users don’t convert at 50%. How can a page thrown up in a day do it.
Spend no more than two days on validation? Why?
You’re about to spend the next ten years building a business - why would you give only 48hrs to make sure it’s actually a valuable market to approach.
It may be a good product but the messaging is off and needs a bit more tweaking. Can you do that in 48 hours?
If it’s your first time out will OP be able to make targeted ads that drive the right kind of traffic?
Please, stop it.
I second your views here. The $500 spend is unreasonable, and to expect 50% conversation is unrealistic. Targeted ads from a first timer is also very difficult.
Any other ideas you'd share regarding idea validation would be huge. Thanks!
Oh, good question that’s not exactly easy to answer. I’ll refer you to @acek for that.
@AceK could you help with some ideas here...?
You had me willing to somehow agree until step 4.
Getting 50% conversions off ads is unicorn territory. Missing that does not mean it should be killed. This is a pretty expensive validation strategy with very little actual customer interactions which is really important.