How to Validate your Product Ideas in 4 Ways

It can be discouraging to spend your resources, time, and energy on a product you thought people would love, only for your product to get lost in the market, not to talk more of being purchased – because people don’t need or want them.

When it comes to creating new products, validation plays a major role, it’s the best way you can be guaranteed that your product is out there providing a solution to a problem in the most helpful way. There must be a need or demand for your product before you even start to think about it. It is said that 9 out of 10 startups fail due to the lack of validation.

“Fortune reported the “top reason” that startups fail: “They make products no one wants.” A careful survey of failed startups determined that 42% of them identified the “lack of a market need for their product” as the single biggest reason for their failure.”

Validating your product in the early phase of your entrepreneurial journey will help you test the waters to build the right products and avoid costly mistakes while saving your time, money, and energy. Below are ways to validate your product ideas:

Share your product ideas

You have more to gain than to lose when you share your product idea with everyone. It’s typical to see entrepreneurs hold on tightly to their product ideas, keeping them top secret, for the fear that someone might hijack them. As much as it is important that you protect your intellectual from business hijackers, sharing your product with others will help you know if you are on the right track.

Your product idea needs to be heard by the people you trust (family, friends, strangers, members of your community, or a group you belong to) to give you solid opinions on your ideas. It will help you reduce blind spots and biases, and you might find opportunities to execute the ideas along the way.

Explore the market for a similar product

Every entrepreneur knows that competition is a good thing for their business. They also know that finding a similar product in the market is not uncommon. There’s a chance that your product idea already exists in the market or something similar to it., and you should consider it to be an advantage to you. You are now assured there’s a market for your product, and you can come up with better ideas to refine your product and make it beat the already existing ones in the market.

Test the waters 

With a ‘mini version’ of your product, you can test run your product idea. That way your target market gets to experience your product and end up desiring more if it meets their needs. From there, you can build your entire product. For instance, if you’re writing a book, you could write the outline and a mini introduction and then watch how your audience responds to it. Their responses will tell you if you should go ahead with the book or just scrap it.

Start selling

There’s no reason not to start selling if you are sure your product is what people want. The good news is you don’t have to wait until your product is in its final stage before you can start making money from it. As you build your product, you would acquire more knowledge and skills, and access new opportunities that will help you create a finished perfect product. Before the finished product is ready, you can validate your product idea by making people pay you for it. Wouldn’t it be great when people pay for your book before it’s finally ready simply because they read the outline and introduction?

It would even be greater if you can meet your potential customers in person, hear them talk about the ‘mini version’ of your product, listen to their feedback, and find out if they’ll be willing to buy the finished products.

When it comes to launching your product idea, feedback is everything. People would be willing to fetch their wallets to pay for products that speak to them.

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Featured image: istockphoto