Looking for feedback on my validation strategy for a SaaS.
I'm building a SaaS for graph based access control (GBAC). Describing GBAC is out of the scope of this post, but to give you an idea, it's useful for authorization in domains such as social networking and document sharing. If you're interested you can read my article on it here.
I'm in the middle of building my product, I'm at a stage where I need feedback from potential users. Here's my strategy:
- I setup a landing page (https://graphbac.com) that allows people to signup for my early access program.
- I'm filtering for individuals that have a genuine need instead of a curiosity by pre-screening with an entry survey.
- I'm writing blog posts to generate traffic to my website.
- If/when people sign up, I'm planning on reaching out to them to understand their use case better and how to finish building my product so that it can be a home run for them.
My target audience are development decision makers that need a GBAC solution but can't find one that's suitable in the market and want to avoid building one in-house. - Every decision I've made thus far has been with that assumption in mind.
Here's the main thing I've been struggling with:
I can make my landing page better. The perfectionist in me wants to keep iterating on it until I'm happy with it but I decided to release early. I'm worried that lack of professionalism or corporate identity may deter potential stakeholders. Here's the rational on which I decided to to release it without spending more time on it: "If someone has a genuine need for the product, the current landing page won't deter them from signing up for the early access program".
Should I spend more time on the landing page to get it up to par with other offerings? Or was my rational correct in that a landing page isn't as important?
I'd also love some feedback on my validation strategy. Is there something I should/can be doing in order to assess if people want my product?
So I've done this a few times with little success using a landing page.
The real issue here is that you need to get feedback and debate different opinions to truly understand why its good or bad in the view of your target audience (Not just the folk signing the cheques). This will help you double down or pivot to something users really want/need. Landing pages just don't give you any of this insight!
The best way I've found to do this is find your target audience in different social channels such as Slack, discord and reddit as examples. Here you can find people who are engaged and want to help. You'll be surprised just how easy it is!
Now finding people to debate the topic is only half of the solution... You need to make sure you give them the opportunity to share their opinion without influencing them. This is a bit of an art form to make sure you can get truly honest feedback that is not swayed by your opinion.
I would strongly recommend reading "Lean Customer Development" by Cindy Alvarez. Amazing resource for ensure you have the techniques to do this right!
Oh and top tip....Be cautious of anyone who doesn't challenge you or ask questions because the reality is that they probably don't give a shit and it won't move the needle forward. Embrace the hard conversations as they will be the most revealing.
That actually gives me some ideas on things I could try... Thanks! :)
Do you know how big is your market? From what I understand you will need to find companies that are about developed an access control system for a specific need where the graph model works, and from that only companies that will look to buy a ready made solution.
I am asking, because I had an idea where the target audience was similar, not a lot of companies, targeting the ones that just about to develop that section I was aiming to provide a ready made solution. And because there isn't any existing products for that kind of solution people usually just go and build an in-house solution.
And because we are indie hackers, it is really hard to create a new category. almost impossible I will say.
Have you checked the google search volume on keywords that will match your product?
The google search volume is garbage. According to estimates I'm looking at maybe 70 searches per month, which isn't enough to qualify as a keyword I can run ads on.
What was your idea? And what strategy did you end up using?
Hi takham7391. Excellent idea. But as far as your validation phase concerns you need to further your research and build an audience that can pay for your solution. To do so, I believe that you should prepare a dedicated newseleter or a community group with a minimum of subscription and see if people are interest in joining in. If they do not interesting in funding its launch, then would have troubles in the future to sustain your solution.
Right, I had planned on creating a community but it seems like I may need to do it sooner rather than later.
What's wrong with curious people? Unless you are getting too many meetings, I would listen to what they have to say and why...
This one is tough. I think that just by looking at it, is extremely difficult to predict. Ideally, you don't want to "overdo it" just for the sake of being a perfectionist.
I agree with some of the feedback you were given. Very early on, it might be better to outreach and get people on the phone. Try to gauge whether people immediately understand your product and whether they find it appealing. If it doesn't, pay very special attention to the "whys". Keep in mind that some perception problems can be addressed with positioning (instead of adding more features).
Eventually, you could do "usability testing". Find someone you consider would be a good candidate for your solution and see what's the first thing that comes to mind when they navigate to your site for the first time.
The reason I'm not engaging with curious people is there's too much to do with very little time. I can only afford to spend time with people that may convert into paying customers.
Did you take a look at the landing page? I think you're response makes me feel better about not working more on the landing page until I've engaged with people first.
I did actually. It looks pretty good IMO! 💪
the best advice I can give you is to talk to your potential customers in order to understand their paint points and what they really need
My recommendation is quite simple. It's something I've done with my first app with success.
Search a single person who wants your solution.
Cold DM and start up a conversation.
Give them everything they need to give you brutally honest feedback.
Repeat #1.
I've found this works well in the early validation stage.
Lmk if this makes sense.
Sweet, thanks for the info. I'm definitely going to give it a try!
Gj with your launch! It's good that you filter people with a survey, but if you plan to make money with your tool - it's even better to filter them with a payment. As you find your first 20 customers you'll be able to craft the right landing page copy. The fastest way to get 20 paying users is via 1-1 chats. I regularly help founders with these, just drop me a DM on Twitter.
That sounds good. I'll probably add some form of payment after the survey but before people can participate. Thanks for the advice :)
Without checking, actually: your LP is probably fine.
Where I see room for improvement is in actually finding the people to come to it and sign up in the first place. Relying solely on blog posts in an early stage is not very effective. Especially since your product seems to be complicated.
But it seems this is a B2B product for a very specific market/target group, yes? Great, then! Get on LinkedIn, find prospects and reach out to them directly.
Depending on where you are with the product exactly, I would suggest asking them for feedback or interview where you show them what you do. This will have a better CR and result in better insights.
Thanks for the advice! :)
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I would love to converse, interview, gauge interest, and sell in person, but that's where I'm stuck. It's very difficult finding people that need this product because I can't speak to every single developer / decision maker out there.
I can organically reach 6-8 new developers or decision makers per day at best (due to the level of research involved) which isn't nearly fast enough. And I'm sure, despite my researching efforts, less than 5% of the people I'm reaching out to will be interested in a GBAC solution. And not because it can't be used for their product, but because they will already have an in-house solution. So cold DMing is out of the question...
As far as my network is concerned, I've already gone through it.
I'm thinking my only option is to create some sort of online presence so that people can find me WHEN they need the solution. And the blog posts and such are my way of educating them about how GBAC will be a lot better for them than what's on the market right now. Hopefully that makes them want to learn more and from there I can speak with them.
Maybe the niche I've targeted is too small?
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.