Prove the viability of your business idea in one week.

The no-risk, step-by-step guide.

Do you have a business or app idea, but afraid to try it because you’re not sure if anyone will actually buy it? Or perhaps you just don’t know what the first step to take is?

Most people will build an app and a website and then figure out if somebody actually wants it. Today we’re going to reverse that process and all it costs is a couple of hours and a few cups of coffee/ beer.

Today I’ll show you a little known but proven, zero-risk way to figure how viable your idea is with real people! Best of all it’s something you’ll do in your spare time.

Before you buy website domains, business cards or anything else there are 2 questions, and only 2 questions you need to answer.

“Who are my customers?” and “Will they buy this?”

The theory

According to Steve Blank (or ‘Jesus’ to anyone in startup world) there are 4 parts to creating a startup.

Watch this:

This is done through the following model:

Long story short, when you’re thinking about the viability of your idea the only things you need to solve are step 1 and 2. Until you find something that people are willing to pay for, all you need to do is keep trying step 1 and 2.

Let’s deep dive.

Customer Discovery

This means finding out who your customers are:

• What do they do?
• How old are they?
• What websites do they visit?
• What do they search for on Google?
• Do they actually have your problem?

Questions like this will help you figure out where to find your customers in the future.

It’s important to narrow down on a specific set of people (aka. cohort) — there has never has been a successful product that’s marketed to everybody.

A product aimed at 20 year olds will be different to a product marketed to 35 year olds. The marketing language will be different, the colours will be different, the user experience will be different. Think about the difference between using Facebook and Snapchat. That’s why it’s important to know exactly who you think will buy your product.

It’s ok to assume your target market is — it’ll come out as you test. If you find nobody in your first target market wants it, talk to another market segment.

Customer Validation

We need to figure out if they’ll actually buy what you’re trying to sell them.

Now, chances are if you asked a stranger ‘Would you buy this?’ they’ll lie and tell you ‘Yeah, sure!’ We instinctively don’t want to hurt peoples feelings, even strangers.

The key to making this work is to find out how motivated they are to use your solution. To see if it’s a burning desire or not. You can find this out by asking open questions like:

• How big of a problem is this for you? Why?
• When was the last time you looked for a solution to this problem?
• How did you do it?
• What would a solution be worth to you?
• Have you tried anything else ? What was good/ bad about it?

Once you start to understand what they’ve done to fix the problem you’ll learn how much it matters to them.

• If you’re hearing ‘I haven’t done much to solve it…’ ‘I don’t have time…’ etc. you’ll know they don’t care and will never ever buy your product.
• If you’re hearing ‘I’ve looked so hard and I just can’t find it, I’ve bought other things and nothing works.’ you’ll know there’s a burning problem there and it’s worth exploring further

Tips

1. Look for places where your market already hangs out. Is it Reddit, at Meetups, on forums, on Facebook Groups, or Quora, or even offline?
2. Start talking to them. Offer to buy them coffee or Skype chat and just talk to them about their problems. Face to face is always best, but if you have no choice email will do. THIS IS THE ONLY THING YOU NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW.
3. Ask mostly open ended questions — don’t lead your customer down a path you want them to take. Ask questions like ‘Do you share photos? to qualify if they have your problem, then ask ‘How?’ and ‘How Often?’ don’t go straight for ‘Do you share photos on social media?’
4. Make it all about them, not about you. Your idea will change through this process as you discover what people need, so talking about full products will scare people off. All you want to do right now is to shut up, listen and learn.
5. You’ll fail a few times, and that’s a great thing. You’re de-risking upfront, so you can keep exploring with new markets and potential solutions before you ever spend a dollar. If it doesn’t work out you’ve lost nothing!
6. Don’t get demoralised. You may just not have found your audience yet. If an interview ends unsuccesfully, thank them and ask them if they know someone else you can talk to. It’s the quickest way to interview as many people as possible
7. Nobody gives a shit about your idea. Don’t worry about anybody stealing it — you have more chance of winning the lottery. Now is the time to get it out in the open and see what people think.

Example

Let’s say you’re building a Photo Sharing app. How would you confirm there’s a market for this idea?

Step 1: Find your target market

The easiest way is to look within your own network, friends or family. Do you know anyone who might use your app?

Talk to them first.

Step 2: Interview them

Ask them questions like:

• Do you share your photos often? (If yes, how often?)
• How do you share photos currently?
• What’s your current solution? What do you like/ dislike about it?/ Why?
• What devices are you sharing on?
• Which device do you share most on? Why?

Once you start asking these general questions, go deeper into the specific issue you’re trying to solve, and how motivated they are to solve it:

• How important is it to <insert key feature>?
• What have you done to solve it?

Once you’re done with the interview, thank them and ask them if they know someone else you can speak to. This is the quickest way to talk to more people.

Step 3: Talk to at least 10 people

After you’ve spoken to 10 people, you’ll get a general idea of how motivated people are.

If you’re just hearing weak answers like ‘Not much, I just live with it” or other weak answers then you’ll know nobody cares much about your solution and it’s time to abandon or change the idea. Then try the process again and see what happens.

Step 4: Keep trying or give up

Keep going through the process until you hear “I’ve tried looking everywhere and nothing solved my problem!” Once you hear that you can offer them to preorder your product. If they buy then congratulations — you’re in business!

Conclusion

Others will get to market faster than you. But in being meticulous — you will have the best chance of success, because you’ll know in detail:

• Who your market is (Positioning)
• What they want (Product)
• Where you can find them (Marketing)

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with me. I’d love to help you.