Strategy for market validation for an existing idea
Problem: How to validate an idea when a product similar to yours already exists in the market but lacks features and vision you think are important.
Example: When I booked movers for my apartment moving I faced many issues like booking them, payment, etc. So I decided to make a platform that will solve these issues. In the market, I found a company similar to it in the US(I live in Canada) but it lacks features, I think should be definitely in the product. Also at ground level, it does the same stuff which my idea will do but I have a broader vision for my idea.
So I know about this lean approach for market validation. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nHuQjULonfaxxanLTIRhh6HWWrMQozC-/view
my question is should do I need validation for each lacking feature.
Please provide some input about validation strategies here.
P.S: The product has 2 sides, movers side, and end-customer side. I have a done validation with real movers and they loved the idea and are ready for dry-run.
I think the simple way to do this without writing a line of code is to make a google form with all the information a mover needs. Start emailing various movers and ask them what are the common problems they face and show them your form.
The important thing to do at this time is to tell them about the problem you and others have booking movers so you can start to build a relationship with them.
Once you have everything in the form & feedback from the movers, you'll know if you have a product without spending a dime or time on development. The form will be the basis for your first UI / product. You don't have to guess what they want because they already told you.
Create the form as a simple website, give them a calendar, login. Keep it super simple:
Auth: Register, Login, PW reset
Main Page: The form
Appointments by date.
Account page.
Go back to them and say, "Hey, based on our conversation, I took your feedback and created this which will save you time organizing moves. It costs "X". If they buy you have a sellable product.
I have already done something similar. I actually created the app mockup in the Adobe XD and had more than one-hour-long f2f meetings with few movers. I understood their pain points and later explained what product would offer them. They loved the idea and the fact that this will make their lives much easier.
Only after got feedback from them, I started on development. The confusion came into my head as there a few add-ons which I think would be great. So should I introduce them in the app and then get a feedback or should I again do a non-code approach?
As an action item, we decided on a dry-run in summer.
Awesome that you went about it that way. A lot of people skip over this and just go right into product development.
Hi Abhishek, How did this turned out?
Hey @abhisharma - This is great progress. Congratulations.
Seems like you're doing a lot of things right.
Regarding your question on whether to code or to stay no-code, I would do the fastest thing possible that will get them to make some sort of commitment, such as a pre-order, or a strong Letter of Intent, or a sign-up. See if you can get them to sign up for your product online or commit to a pilot for a period of time without coding. If they won't do that, then coding probably won't help.
Great that you did some customer interviews. My favorite book on that is The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. You can read it in an hour or two, and it's packed full of useful advice on customer validation.
Good luck and keep on going!