Everyone talks about MVPing and validating - but how do you validate?

Question

Seriously, I completely agree that you should validate a product before building it. But what is the best/optimal way on validating a SaaS product?

I have tried creating landing pages with a signup form, but that doesn't really tell me much.

If I get 100 signups, is that ok to proceed considering the product doesn't even exist yet? Or should you try to get an X amount of users that are ready to pre-order and consider that as validation? Do you take into account the bounce rate?

Or do you just go and create a bare-bones MVP - but nowadays, the standard for MVP is quite high, if I'm building the MVP I don't really think that that counts as early validation (maybe I'm wrong?)

I have a strong suspicion that the answer to this is - that there is no right answer, but what is your experience with validating a product idea?

Markuss · Accepted Answer

@berthakgokong I agree, but I also think that that's the "easy" way, building the MVP is not easy, but its the most straightforward approach. I have read multiple times that the best tip is to sell then build. The real question I guess is - how do you sell a non-existent product?

Mario Camús 🤓 · Answer

validate = finding Product/Market fit

I could give you some hints on how to do so, but I think it's better if @andrewchen (ex-Head of Growth @Uber) tells you.

I found this presentation a few years ago from slideshare and found it quite useful, hope you find it too :)

https://es.slideshare.net/aareitio/andrewchen-zero-to-productmarket-fit

Bogomil Shopov - Bogo · Answer

I would create a small mockup - using figma or draw.io and present the concept to those 100 subscribers and ask them - would you buy this. That is a good start to validate an assumtion.

Bertha Kgokong · Answer

Personally, I think you got to build it. Hence the MVP - What is the minimum effort and features you can put together in a product, very quickly and sell it to your potential clients?

If they pay for it --- then it is validated, filling in a form and saying "yes I would pay for that" is not the same as entering your credit card details and paying for it

Markuss · Answer

@berthakgokong You might be right. For me personally, I have this weird block on no-code tools, since I could just build the product myself and not worry about potential limitations that no-code tools might have.

But it always takes longer than expected :)

Maybe the right approach is to build the MVP/prototype with no-code, validate it by getting paying customers and if the business takes off and you are starting to reach some limitations with no-code then you roll up your sleeves and code the product.

Have you had any experience with no-code? Which platform do you use? I have heard of webflow and bubble

Subash Chandra Bose A · Answer

We are currently in this phase. In the past for a web app, we had an idea to create a landing page that showed the real product in the market using models and interested people would contact or verify the price, with that click rate, We can confirm that product or according to the number of people who are contacting us for the product. Either way, we haven't done it. But right now we're building a mobile app, we've discovered that it's pointless to build and spend 5 to 6 months on an MVP  that can become something people don't want. to use and get feedback is a good thing to confirm we are building and shipping the MVP in a month and onboarding limited users to validate the idea. Check  @senatio on Instagram for  our MVP updates

Markuss · Answer

@bogomep I dont think that "Would you buy this?" questions are good for validation. 
"Yeah, maybe sounds interesting" is the usual tought process that I have when asked such questions, the real buying mentality only kicks in when you actually have to commit with your credit card - so Im sceptical of this approach.

But maybe Im wrong

Everyone talks about MVPing and validating - but how do you validate?

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