👉 How much validation is enough validation?
Let's say you already found some ideas and want to validate them.
Two things you need to know:
- How to get the audience ?
- How to talk with prospects ?
You can break down the first question into two parts. Either you find your audience organically or you go with the money route.
Some resources for the organic route:
Step-by-Step Instructions to get you started with each channel
- How to Get Your First 100 Email Subscribers (Neil Patel)
- How To Grow Your Email List Fast (Ash Read)
- How to Grow a Facebook Group in Under a Month (Reportz)
- Grow a 6k Facebook Group For Customer Research (Snowfall)
I personally enjoy the paid route better because it's faster
Next Step: How to talk with customers ? and if you did, How much validation is enough validation ?
All these questions and their answers (plus lot of resources) are documented in this article 👉 How to validate SaaS Ideas
The most important question here is "how much validation is enough validation"
People tend to get satisfied with few sign-ups or traction to their website.
However, the only real validation is when you get real commitment and people are willing to pay for your product. Everything else is just an illusion
100% agree. I would also add here there is a clear difference I've seen between "I would pay" and actually paying. This should always be in the back of your mind when measuring validation.
Exactly ! That’s what we tried to put out there in this article !
It’s not just another “validation blog/article” .
We’ve been talking to a lot of indies who are wondering why their ideas are not profitable despite validation. It turns out every time that they had sign ups and email lists … But as soon as they start to charge… no one stays !
Money from stranger (no family/friends) is the best validation ever!
Thats what we wrote in the article and we even wrote how to get there.
Exactly!
Nice Article, why do you find paid better ?
I would personally ask people to do both if they can (organic and paid). I like paid because you lose money but you win in time, and depends on your personal insights you might have a lot of time and lacking money, so organically is the way to go.
I go about the specific details on how to do validation if it's paid, with resources and personal experience.
Pretty Solid !
amazing work, i was able to generate good ideas with your last article, looking forward to validate them. keep going
Hey Thanks a lot :)
The other question is what constitutes validation?
Likes?
Waitlist signups?
Pre-orders?
Once you've achieved idea validation, how do you move to product-market fit?
Depending on a real goal of the builder, validation can be anything.
But in SaaS, monetization is the goal. So just some sign-ups and likes are definitely not enough validation... Mostly just sign of interest !
Here, validation should imply real commitments like pre-orders and pre-sales.
For other projects, like building private communities or some platforms to exchange etc... Waitlist sign-ups and Applications maybe enough validation.
Defining a realistic and a suitable goal from the start is the Key!
If an idea is validated, it means there is a need for it. So if a solution satisfies that need and customers want to buy it, that's a product-market fit.
So basically the proper validation leads to the product-market fit.