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Transcription
Module 1, Lesson 9
Start & Scale

How To Validate Your Idea

In this lesson I'm going to take you through how to validate your idea. This is important so that
you don't waste unnecessary time and money on a product that your audience fundamentally
doesn't want. Basically, you need to know if an idea has legs before you do anything else. It's
important that you don't get obsessed with the way that you want your idea to be. You need to be
willing to listen to your market and iterate accordingly. If you want an easy win, just make
something that people want and give it to them.

It can be that simple. The best validation for your product is always going to be your first sale.
Somebody pulling out their credit card and saying yes, give me that. But at this stage you just
have an idea on paper. So now I want you to talk to around 20 people that would fit your target
audience as per your customer personas and see if they think your product's a good idea. To find
these 20 people you need to just go for it. Try and find people in your network through friends,
family and colleagues.

Even posting on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram goes a long way. Failing that, you may need to
literally get out on the street or a cafe and just talk to people. Basically, ask them if they'd
purchase your product and if they would if they'd recommend it to a friend. And if not, why not. If
the majority say yes then you're definitely on to something. I've attached a simple questionnaire
that you can use when conducting these validation interviews.

So it starts off as a little bit of a script. Hey there, Zack. I'm an entrepreneur developing a new
product idea and I was wondering if I could quickly ask you these five questions. The product is a
reusable straw and it's helping to reduce the impact of the waste from everyday disposable items.
So here's a photo of the product. So, first up, I'm gonna ask, would you purchase this product? If
so, would you recommend it to a friend? If not, why wouldn't you purchase it? If you could change
just one thing about the product what would it be?

And any other feedback that you have that could improve this product idea. Thanks so much for
your time, I really appreciate your insights. So, if nobody you speak to is interested in your product
maybe you could tweak it a little. For example, with one of my first blends of detox tea I took them
to my office and there were lots of women that fit my target audience. They all loved it and wanted
me to start making it for them as soon as possible.

And they were even messaging me about it on Facebook all the time so I knew that I was on to a
winner. It's also a good idea to validate your idea through researching existing products on the
market. If there's already a really high demand for your product in this area, that's a good thing. It
means there are people who are willing to buy. A quick Google search, and skim through social
media hashtags, should show you if there's much demand for your idea or something similar.
Again, you don't need to be intimidated by your competition.

There are things to learn from them and as long as you have a strong UVP you'll stand out. You
simply want to know that there's buyers out there and if so where they are. So as an action item
for this lesson, it's time to get out there and start talking to people. Don't miss this step just
because it's uncomfortable. Because it's crucial. You might feel just like breezing past this, but
trust me, you're only gonna waste time and money this way. This is what I have done to create
multiple, extremely successful e-commerce business.

So basically the action item is going to be speaking to these 20 people I mentioned before about
your favourite idea, doing some basic market research, and if the majority of these 20 people you
speak to would like to see your product in the market then it's definitely something you should
continue thinking about. You can capture their responses on the worksheet that we've provided.
You can do it at parties, the office, cafes, bars, wherever your target market hangs out. It can
even be over Skype.

Whatever you have to do make it happen and don't waste time on this step. Find out ASAP if
there's demand for what your market wants. If people don't show interest and you can't validate
your idea you need to keep working the idea or the UVP until people start to respond positively.
Now, it's always best to do this in person, and ideally, even ask if you can film it. But if you can't,
for some reason, or the thought just petrifies you the next best thing is to reach out to people
online. You can even reach out via email or on social media sites like LinkedIn.

But there's definitely nowhere near as good as in person. It might be just a facial expression that
they make or their tone of voice that shows you how they're really feeling. So an easy alternative
to validating your product idea in person is by using the Start & Scale community group on
Facebook. So I've pulled up a couple of posts on validation from some students so we can look at
a post from Louisana, for example. So she's written, "Hey, guys, I'm still validating my idea.
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Transcription
Module 1, Lesson 9
Start & Scale

"Would you be so kind as to answer this survey? "I promise it's short and anyone "who sleeps in a
bed can answer it." So keep it super simple and to the point. And these posts have tended to work
better if you include some kind of product photography to get people interested in commenting on
the post. And, this particular post has received over 41 comments. So, it's clear that she's found
over 20 people to communicate with on validating her idea.

So an example from another student in the Start & Scale group is a student who is trying to
validate an idea that is being created for entrepreneurs. So this is a perfect chance to use the
group because the group is full of entrepreneurs and you'll be able to really access people from
your customer persona. So this is doing a really great job. So he's trying to validate the idea of a
foldable laptop stand box as well as a new tropic tea. So, he's asked the group and he's said that
he'd love to hear your thoughts about those ideas and thank you in advance. And he has received
over 49 comments on that post.

And again, he made this post extremely visual by using photos and mock-ups of his product so it's
really easy to get our audience's attention. So those are a couple of ways that you can lean on the
Foundr Start & Scale community to help you validate your product. So I want you to note
something really important here. You should not spend money on building your physical product
until you've validated it. It's very important to complete this module in full before moving forward.
So right now, I want you to go and speak to those 20 people, capture their responses in the
worksheet and I'll see you in the next lesson.