Often people (especially technical people) spending months and resources on a product that is not viable or worse, something that people don't want or doesn't solve the problem from which it was designed.
Validation is the most important step to creating a business. It corresponds to the activities to prove the assumption that the problem that you are aiming for exists, that enough people are facing the same problem, and finally, that the solution that you are proposing is wanted.
Many different methods exist to validate your idea, each one of them with specific purposes and for different scenarios.
After reviewing and testing different methods, we have chosen the Validation Board by the Lean Startup Machine
The validation board is a canvas or a model built with a set of necessary elements and tools to validate an idea, based on testing, learning, and pivoting.
Advantages of using the Validation Board
· It's a proven technique
· Is based on reality: Your idea is based mostly on assumptions
· It's lean
· It's easy to understand
Customer Hypothesis
First, we describe our audience or target customer in terms of the problem that they are facing. Gender, income, housing, location, position, etc.
Example 1:
· Ad Buyer
· Marketing Manager for a Dog Clothing store
· High school teacher
Example 2:
· Technical experts now in management (Team Leads, Supervisors, Managers). This is their first management position, likely less than one year in the new role, have previously been successful in prior roles; likely to continue to be successful
Problem Hypothesis
This is the assumption that the customer has a problem that you can solve.
Example:
· The Marketing Manager has a common problem in today’s dominated Digital Ads Market. The cost of advertising is greater than the maximum amount of money that they can pay for customer acquisition.
Solution Hypothesis
In this part, we provide a brief description of our product and how it solves the Problem defined.
Example:
· We are going to create a marketplace for traditional and local mediums of advertising for small businesses.
Assumptions
These are all the assumptions about the customer, problem, and solution hypothesis that require testing.
Example:
· The small business Marketing Manager does not have enough budget to advertise in Digital Ads Platforms
· The small business Marketing Manager wants to advertise
· There is no other platform for advertising for small business owners
Riskiest Assumption
After we reviewed the assumptions and hypothesis, we prioritize putting as the most important one the one that represents the major amount of risks (amount of money or time spent).
Method (How we test it)
The Lean Startup Machine proposes three possible types of Methods to validate your Riskiest Assumption: (you can use more than one)
1. Exploration: Reproduce the problem
2. Pitch: Pitch the solution in exchange of currency (email, phone number, cash)
3. Concierge: Deliver the solution, with the fewest amount of technology possible
We can add to that with:
4. Surveys
5. Contradiction: If validate your assumption becomes too difficult or too expensive, assume the opposite and use a simpler method
Here are some of the ideas we had (geared around identifying and learning from new technology managers):
Minimum Success Criteria
Define what's going to prove that your Assumption was Validated or Invalidated
Example
· If X amount of Marketing Managers answer 10 points or less in the survey it means that the assumption is validated.
Get Out of the Building
· In-person surveys
· Email forms
· Phone Calls, etc
To learn more book some time with us here.
