Thoughts on Validating Ideas
How do you validate that a problem exists and your idea for a solution does solve it?
Yes, you are going to need to communicate [effectively] with those who are likely experiencing the problem. Yes, they may tell you the problem does not exist, which you may not want to hear. Words yet, they may tell you your idea has been done to death. But without engaging in a positive, meaningful way with people unfortunately you'll never get positive or negative feedback.
That engagement cam be online in communities like this, if your idea is for startups/devs, or it could be on social ,media, or you might need to sit down with them in-person.
Paid search + signups/preorders.
In my experience, asking them if a problem exists doesn't typically yield great results. If I can get them to walk through their workflow, describe their job, explain specific scenarios, etc., we end up "uncovering" problems through the conversation. It takes some level of skill to ask the right questions and figure out where to poke, but the more conversations you have, the better you'll be able to extract meaningful information.
The first few discovery interviews I did were all about confirming my observations. Once I decided to let go of that angle and just focus on understanding the reality, things got much easier for me.