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Have you used ProductHunt for the idea validation? How did it work out for you?

Katya Veremeichik
12 replies
We have an idea to start a new branch of Approveit, and I am wondering if our idea is worth it. Market research is reassuring so far, but there's no better research than to ask your audience, right? If you've done idea validation campaigns here on PH, please, share your experience and maybe some advice?:) And, of course, have a great week everyone!

Replies

Daniel Engels
PH could get you some insights - but I don't think it's a valid standalone tool for idea validation. You risk to get lots of false positives (people tend to encourage new projects). You might also get false negatives if your product is a tech one, because the audience here is skewed towards community / marketing roles.
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Katya Veremeichik
@daniel_engels so what you're saying is is can go either way:) true! But is there really a perfect way to validate the idea? I wish we had a larger SM audience, prople there are already familiar with what we do and could provide a reasonable feedback. That might have been of help but it's still work in progress.:(
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Daniel Engels
@katyaveremeichik I'd recommend to validate your ideas with a public at least vaguely close o the decision-makers you expect to sell to. For example, If your software simplifies the HR processes of big enterprises, you'd need to approach the HR managers of such large corporations.
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Colin Mathews
I find people who disagree with me a lot on this, but for me PH is a great place for validating ideas. I think the key is that you have to be good at being realistic and looking at the quiet and sometimes subconscious intent behind people's comments/feedback/signups. You may get a lot of noise from a launch on PH (people being overly positive or negative or just trying every single app that comes out), but I usually can figure out if there is real interest in an idea (or piece of an idea) when I think critically and honestly about the output of a launch.
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Colin Mathews
@sewell_stephens Just keep at it! One tip I would give is to use your maker comment to be as upbeat and vulnerable as you can. Go into a bit of depth as to how excited you are and make it unmistakably clear that you are interested in feedback so you can be a better maker. People like helping people when they feel an emotional connection. I can tell from looking at your launches that your app skills are getting better. Keep going.
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Colin Mathews
@sewell_stephens Dig into that negative feedback. Skip past the very generic statements like "I don't like this" and focus on the ones that give you something to work from. It might help to actually write in a Google doc and summarize the feedback as an exercise. Sometimes the act of writing will illuminate the generalities being expressed: - Is your product not needed? - Is your product confusing? - Are people not sure who your product is for? I'm doing my whole startup in public if you want to follow along. I'm hopeful that documenting my journey will help provide some clarity for other builders: https://www.youtube.com/channel/...
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G. M. Mehdi
Your current audience could be a great way to engage and beta test. Make a subsection or incentivize current users to test out the new feature. Good luck!
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Heleana Grace
A year ago, I did freelance work for a Saas company based in the EU. They wanted to get into video marketing and improve their YouTube presence, but they didn't have the gear, the spokesperson or the editing skills to start it. I started repurposing their articles into videos, and the videos did amazing. Their YouTube videos started ranking in Google and they were getting 10k views/video. Which is awesome for the B2B space. I knew this was something a lot more Saas companies needed, so I launched videodeck.co. I launched the service on ProductHunt for validation. ProductHunt was the biggest driver of new clients and we got soo much feedback on what we can do better. https://www.producthunt.com/post... I'd definitely go this route again for new products and services. IndieHackers is also super good for validation as well.
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Rich Watson
Usually a hit or miss- if your idea is somewhat intriguing you'll get great feedback- if it's generic or no one finds an interest in it your topic will stay unactive.
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