Let’s imagine: you have created a fantastic product that you invested quite a bit of time and money in, and finally released it on the market. Unfortunately, your revolutionary idea failed to catch on. And as a result, all your investments never paid off.This can only happen because you had forgotten to validate your idea. In our article, we will explain how to validate product ideas with only minimal investments.
Reasons and Goals
You may ask yourself: Why should I validate my ideas? The answer is simple. The main reason why you have to validate your ideas is that it will save you time and money.Validation is the method that will help you understand if your product has demand on the market. Therefore you will be able to develop your business strategy to get more profit with fewer effort. Before rushing into developing your project, make some points clear:
- Investigate the market – it will help you understand if similar products are popular with consumers and how many competitors you will have;
- Validate the aim – assure yourself that your products will meet people’s needs and solve their problems;
- See the willingness to pay – you need to be sure that after the release of your product you will have enough consumers.
What to Look out for When Validating an Idea for Your Product?
There are many factors you need to analyze during the validation. First of all, a successful idea should be clear to you. If you can’t correctly explain what problems your product will solve or what benefits it has, you certainly need to work more on the concept.Next, determine your potential competitors. Check how crowded the marked is and research some companies that sell similar products. It will help you understand the situation on the market and choose the right business strategy. Moreover, you can learn a lot from the experience of the existing companies.Furthermore, you should be aware of the difficulties which may occur. Make sure that you have access to all resources required for your business. How big of an investment will you need to release the first line of the product? Do you need partners or can you produce everything on your own?If you want to investigate the product idea in detail, try to answer the questions from this article by Nick De Mey.
5 Ways to Validate a Product Idea
There are many methods to help you determine whether your product is worth working on. We selected 5 fantastic ideas for you. You can start validating product ideas in one of the following ways:
- Launch keyword research
You can use one of the special tools for this, or just start with a simple Google search for similar products and ideas. It will help you to learn the trends and find the most discussed topics. If there are many similar searches on the web, you will probably be able to find potential customers.
- Ask your customers
The best way to know if people are interested in your product is to ask them. You can meet your potential customers in person or interview them on the internet. However, keep in mind two things. First of all, don’t interview random people: choose your target audience and focus on it. Second, interested in the product does not equal willing to pay. Remember this while analyzing the obtained data.
- Start advertisement
It is a proven method to get potential customers’ insights and feedback. You can start with launching your promotion video in one of the social networks. Target specific audiences: a certain age group, people from the same location or users with similar interests. This is how you can find out if your potential customers are engaged in your product.
- Create a beta version
There is no need to spend a lot of time to create a completely functional product. Start with a beta version, which will include some features and tools to represent your idea. Launching such demo products will help you find your audience and learn people’s response.
- Try crowdfunding
Crowdfunding platforms can aid you in reaching multiple goals. First of all, you will see if people are interested in your idea and if they are ready to pay for it. Moreover, you will find your first potential customers. And of course, getting some funding for your project will be a useful bonus.Remember, if you are still uncertain, you can find many more ways to validate your idea on the web.
Methodologies
At this point, you must have noticed that all these strategies to validate your product ideas have something in common. They are aimed to minimize risks for your business and to reach the market with minimal expenditures.Such approach is known as the lean methodology, popularized by a successful businessman Eric Ries. This methodology is focused on a continuous process of development and validation. It can be described as a build-measure-learn loop. You start with the definition of your primary idea and the creation of a minimum viable product (MVP). Then you launch it and obtain the first insights from customers. This data should be analyzed to determine the weak points of your idea and to continue developing your product in the right way.
Usage of Landing Pages to Validate Your Product Idea
A great way to examine if your idea has potential is to use a landing page. All you need is to create a few landing pages with a simple description of your idea. They should contain specific details about your product like pricing, product description, and characteristics. However, if the customer clicks on the “buy” button, he will receive a message explaining that the product is still in development.Note that the final page should urge users to leave their email for further notifications.Using landing pages is a neat method to help you learn more about the customers’ interests without even creating a product.
Validating Product Ideas Step by Step
Indeed, you will need a plan for how to validate a product idea. That is why we have created this clear step by step guide for you:
- Determine your product’ goals and niche;
- Find your target audience;
- Create an MVP;
- Grow a base of potential customers;
- Launch pre-orders;
- Start analytics;
- Eliminate the weak sides of the product;
- Keep developing your idea.
Tools That Can Help
Finally, to make your validation process as simple as possible, we will list some useful tools for you.You can search the market with CrunchBase, Angel.co or LinkedIn databases. Launch keyword research using Google Trends and SEMRush tools. To analyze potential customers’ interests, use Quora’s questionnaires. A good platform to start your advertising campaign is Facebook Ads.If you want to know how to test your product idea, you can use HotJar to observe site performance and Google Spreadsheets to update your prototype. And last but not least, Google Analytics will assist you in analyzing data.
Conclusion
Now you know much more about the validation of your product idea. It can be a long process, but as a result, it will help you to minimize the risks and effectively develop your business.We hope that with our material you will avoid all common mistakes and create a successful product. If you have got an idea and want to realize it successfully, our team will help you.