Validation Experiments

Invite topical experts for a feedback session to evaluate opportunities, problems and ideas.

Gut-check whether your solution solves a pain or is a vitamin.

Use your gut to evaluate whether you have achieved product market fit. Most of the time, you'll know when you don't have it.

Asking the opinion of your Mom.

A form of MVP where on the user's side things seem automated whereas behind the scenes they are solved with manual labour.

One-to-many questionnaire to potential target group in order to get feedback on problem, solution, and / or commercial value.

Research search keyword volume and quality within your domain

Build a fully functional MVP using no-code tools. (To be clear, the MVP DOES run on code, but you don't have to do any of the coding)

Is your company default alive or default dead?

Give users a limited amount of mock-currency to spend on a handful of features, to discover preference and priorities.

Create a non-functioning button in an existing product to test interest in a new feature.

Use a paper mock-up to test your idea with actual users.

Visually map all stakeholders in your ecosystem, along with their pains & needs.

Invite decision-makers to narrow the domain and scope for your project.

Allow users to pre-order your proposition at a discount, to gauge interest and commercial potential.

Use the P-M-Fit quantification engine pioneered by Superhuman to determine P-M-Fit.

Ask users to record themselves and provide voice-over whilst performing pre-defined tasks in a prototype.

Ask to tail a potential user for a day to better understand their Customer Journey and the challenges that arise in their life.

Build an in depth business case to learn the dynamics of your business, determine the Y1 startup cost, and the Y5+ revenue potential.

Use a digital mock-up to test your concept with actual users.

Run a digital ad campaign hooked up to the right analytical software.

Run a targeted e-mail campaign to gauge problem- or solution-fit.

Convince interested users to leave their e-mail addresses as a measure of commercial potential.

Share your product idea (in any form) within a target community s.a. Reddit to get feedback from your most niche audience.

Launch a website as if your product were already available for sale. See how many people try to buy.

Interview individual stakeholders in your ecosystem to better understand their pains and needs.

Incentivise user behaviour that drives growth.

Create a numbered waiting list where interested users can drop their e-mail addresses. Optionally gamify moving up in the list.

Test a prototype that gives the impression of a fully functional product, but actually has no code behind it.

Write a blog post outlining a problem / solution and boosting it using a small amount of money to gauge response.

Go undercover in Customer Support for one or multiple days to discover customer's pains & needs.

Complete the buyer's journey for one or more competing offerings to learn, steal and improve your proposition on multiple levels.

Have your sales force pitch a B2B proposition to a potential customers as if it were already live and for sale.

Explore technological developments in your domain

Launch your product on a curation platform s.a. Product Hunt and measure upvotes.

Observe mimetic user behaviours within the defined domain.

Break down the Value Chain on multiple levels: Stakeholders, Resources, Value, Time.

Use a visual, physical, non-functioning prototype to gauge commercial interest in your product.

Launch a fully functional MVP in a controlled test group for testing + learning purposes.

Build and launch a landing page explaining your value proposition and measure on-page user behaviour.

Poll your user base for its promoters and detractors and calculate the NPS.

Beta-test an app 'invite-only' or as 'public beta' through the Apple Testflight app.

Measure the retention (%) of a cohort of new users over a longer period of time (1+ month).

Break down competing / adjacent businesses on all levels to learn and improve on problem-, solution- and commercial fit.

Convince potential B2B customers to sign a 'letter of intent' stating they would like to purchase your product as soon as its finished.

Perform a cradle-to-grave analysis on the resources in your offering do determine their ecological impact.

Does organic growth + traffic account for ≥50% of new users?

Shortly open a Point of Sale to measure user interest and feedback.

Use a functional, non-aesthetical prototype to test technical feasibility of your product.

Are you able to delegate all of your work in such a way that you seem the CEO on paper, but actually others are doing your work?

Desirability

Create a video or animation explaining your value proposition and test with end-users for interest, understandability, retention and /or reproduction.

Launch your product on a platform s.a. Kickstarter to measure intention-to-buy whilst leveraging the crowd to raise funding.

Is your process automated to the extent where it can be copy pasted effortlessly and with little-to-no ramp up?