How To Collect Feedback To Validate Your Product Idea
Go through the following feedback loop and validate the user and market fit for your physical product idea so you can build a viable product.
When you come up with a great idea, the first thing you should be asking yourself is if this idea has sufficient potential and interest to attract customers.
Don’t just trust your guts on this.
While it is a good thing to use your intuition, we are oftentimes misguided by our own perceptions and this can be fatal for your product if followed blindly.
Use your instincts and intuition to define the assumptions that you later need to validate with real feedback from the market. Use it as a sort of checklist to ensure that each of those assumptions is confirmed.
The following feedback loop will help you get there. These are the 3 main types of feedback that you should collect to ensure that you have a product with good chances to be successful.
Feedback from Users (Desirability)
The very first thing that you need to confirm is that you have a product that is appealing to users and that is solving a particular problem or need that they have.
Your idea isn’t unique by itself unless the users find value on it.
Your idea can be the most innovative, fully-featured, all-in-one, best of its class product, but it won’t make a difference if it is not solving some pain that your users have.
In order for users to consider changing their current solution or status quo, your proposal has to offer way more value (often by several factors). All too often, we underestimate how people are extremely comfortable with their status quo even if it’s not necessarily their best option.
Don’t expect people to just change their long-learned habits.
Just because you have a solution that will definitely solve all of their current pains, it doesn’t mean they will automatically buy on it.
Changing to a new solution means, getting out of their comfort zone, learning new habits, spending additional money, uncertainty about its result, or not the right timing. Those are really hard friction points to go over.
Which type of feedback you should aim to get? Here is a list of things you should consider. Use their current solution/status quo as the baseline.
- Does the solution solve the problem/needs of the user?
- What would the user expect to see in the solution (prior to showing them anything)?
- Does it generate a “wow-effect” or unexpected reaction in the user?
- Is the solution intuitive to use? Did it require any explanation?
- What do users like about the solution?
- What are some concerns or negative feedback from the user?
- What is a reasonable price for them to purchase the solution?
- Do they have any suggestions for the idea (what if)?
Be open to any feedback and use it to decide if your solution is desirable for your target user at all and which actions would help to improve the desirability of the product in the next product versions.
Technical Feedback (Feasibility)
The next aspect to consider is the feasibility of the product. This feedback will be gathered by your technical team and it is related to the technical development of the solution.
Your product is feasible if it can deliver the intended functionalities.
The best way you can get to know about the feasibility of your product is by confirming that the technical requirements that you have defined are met.
You do this by performing tests in your solution. Those tests should be specific to validate a particular requirement with a target to meet. The tests can be simple but they need to provide valid results.
Some types of testing or checks that you can perform in your physical product are:
- Design checks where you can get the information directly from drawings or computer 3d models such as dimensions or weight.
- Mechanical tests to check the reliability and durability of the product such as exposure to extreme temperature or impact resistance.
- Performance tests where you can verify the functionality of the solution according to the parameters you have defined such as battery duration or push-button force required.
Market Feedback (Viability)
Lastly, you should validate that your idea is viable by evaluating the informatin of your market. The importance of this feedback is to confirm that, despite having a desirable solution for your users and that is technically feasible, it makes sense in terms of business.
“ The big question of our time is not Can it be built? but Should it be built?” Eric Ries — The Lean Startup
Some aspects to consider to reveal if your solution is viable is to understand the market size, the competitors and your solution costs.
Most of this information can be gathered by doing market research which you can do by using online sources to understand the potential market that is available and that applies to your particular solution, and which other players are there already (or could potentially enter in the near future).
One of the most valuable information that is directly related to your specific solution is the costs in which you will incur to build your solution. That includes the costs of the components of your solution and the assembly, but also the equipment and tools required to fabricate them.
The costs to build your solution should allow you to have enough margins for the business to be viable
A common way to track your product’s costs is by creating a Bill Of Materials (BOM) of your product.
Start with a Prototype
The best way to collect the above feedback is by building a version of your solution. This should be a functional version that you can show to users and allows you to collect real and valuable feedback.
Generate interest with a functional version of your solution
There are different ways you can build this first version of your solution. Depending on the solution that you are building you can either start with a Proof of Concept, if you have an innovative solution or technology, or with a Design version if your product is all about aesthetics and design functionality.
Focus on the main selling point of your solution
In the early stages, you shouldn’t aim to have a final product with all the features and details. You should primarily focus on building a version that showcases the main selling point, the unique value proposition.
You will evolve the solution through several versions that will incorporate features based on the feedback collected and will eventually take you to the final product.
Getting It Right
You should ensure that your idea meets all three criteria, desirability, feasibility and viability, in order to have confidence that your product will be a success.
If at any point in the development you can’t meet any of these criteria, it might be a sign that your idea has deviated and you should go back and revise the feedback collected.
(Build Your Physical Product in Short Cycles with our Free Email Course)
Abilista guides innovators to develop their product ideas from concept, prototyping and all the way to manufacturing following our own step by step framework. We are already helping several entrepreneurs and startups to build their ideas by giving them access to simple and agile tools and expertise on-demand.
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