Idea Validation — how do you know if your startup idea is a good one?
While you can think your way to a startup idea, you can’t simply think your way to knowing if it’s a good one.
I talk to a dozen or more Startup Founders one-on-one every week during my office hours — and while the office hours are focused on customer acquisition and traction, we frequently find ourselves backtracking and asking “Of the 1,000,000 assumptions we made about this being a good idea for a startup, which ones have we ACTUALLY validated as true (or false)?”
The answer is generally not a large number, often its zero. So many of the Founders I talk to are trying to jump the line and start acquiring customers before they’ve even validated that the market sees the problem the same way they do (or at all!?!?).
The fix, while not easy or popular, is simple.
Take a step back, look at your biggest assumptions. If for example you sell steering wheel covers for flying cars…one of the most critical assumptions is that we’re going to get flying cars. So, if our entire model is predicated on that — then testing landing pages to see which color performs better — is probably not the most critical assumption we’d want to clarify.
<Side note: I’ve been waiting for flying cars since I first saw the Moller Merlin when I was 9…in 1987…anytime now guys, I’m totally ready.>
There is a process for this.
To make life easier for Founders, we wrote a comprehensive series on idea validation starting with this article on the overall idea validation process.
Ask an Expert.
Looking for a great way to pass some of the early validation tests? Cheat. Ask someone who’s already taken the test for the answers. Using experts in the field your idea is based in, on, or around is a great way to short circuit understanding of things that might seem super complicated or unreachable to you — but might be obvious or common knowledge to the right expert. Here’s an article that details exactly how to use Experts as part of the validation process.
But DEFINITELY talk to customers!
Don’t assume that you can simply query experts to victory here…you can definitely gain a lot of understanding…but you also need to talk directly to you target market. For more on that — read this piece on using customer discovery to validate assumptions. This is particularly helpful for those assumption based on expected consumer behaviors like changing a habit “I’d prefer to travel by flying car”, as opposed to technical assumptions like “We can make a car that flies”.
Then tell the world (well, small chunks of it at least) about it!
Once you’ve validated those most important assumptions — the ones that are binary stop/go type data points. For example, being able to build engines that are strong enough to make a car fly, but efficient enough that they can provide a useful range. If one of our assumptions seems to violate physics…we better focus on figuring out a way around that. The assumption, not physics. Assume physics is validated (for now).
I digress, I was talking about telling the world about your idea. Once you are ready to talk to strangers (investors, customers, potential hires, partners etc) about the idea — this adds another dimension of validation (often in the form of near bullying level scrutiny…so, don the thick skin) — its time to pitch! Here’s a great piece on preparing your “elevator pitch.”
