What are the strongest signals that validate an idea and show that the product is worth building?
When you build many products based only on a feeling, you eventually realise that the majority of them won’t work.
Sometimes it’s because the distribution wasn’t good enough. Other times, the product itself wasn’t good, or people simply didn’t need it.
Since I’ve already launched many things that failed, 😀 I now try to understand before building whether an idea is worth investing my time into.
For example, in my case, a tool that helps prevent LinkedIn bans...
Here are some signals I look at:
The problem happened to me first.
I became my own potential user, which is usually a strong starting point.I ask people on Product Hunt.
You can see more patterns, learn from people with more experience, and get feedback not only on the idea but also on distribution.I check the search demand.
I use tools like Google Trends or AnswerThePublic to see whether people are actively searching for the problem.
For example, searches for “LinkedIn ban” increased by 1,950% in the last month, and “LinkedIn restriction” by 3,800%.I search social media for keywords and discussions.
I look for people talking about the problem and check whether there is frustration.
For example, on TikTok, I found dozens of creators complaining about LinkedIn restrictions, asking for explanations, and looking for solutions. The comments showed that many others had the same issue.Waitlist or paywall.
If the product is already usable, the strongest validation is whether people are willing to sign up or pay.
How else do you validate your product ideas before building?
Replies
Scarlett.
That’s a very valid question., Nika!
Personally, I don’t think validation needs to be overcomplicated. The best approach is usually to ship an MVP immediately... ideally within 3 to 10 days. (unless it's something massive. Here I talk about simple tools/products). Then put it in front of the most relevant audience and see what happens.
Two friends built a local app that lets drivers notify another driver when there is a problem with their car. They reached 15,000 users in around 10 days without doing anything particularly sophisticated. They simply contacted admins of large automotive Facebook groups, and the admins shared the app with their communities.
If people start using and sharing a very basic version, that is probably one of the strongest signals that the idea is worth developing further.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@byalexai You are right. I sometimes overthink everything and it takes me ages to come up with that publicly :D
Love this one! My favorite signal: people who've already rigged up their own workaround (a spreadsheet, a Notes doc). Nobody bothers doing that for a problem they don't actually have.
That's kind of how my own thing started tbh. I was journaling a lot and just wanted something that could read it back and show me stuff I wasn't noticing. Nothing really did, so I ended up building it for myself first. Turns out being your own annoyed user is pretty good validation.
Waitlist sign-ups I trust way less though. A "notify me" click is easy. Someone actually coming back a week later on their own? That's the one that means something.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@nelsonsilvadev how would you recommend I get more users for my LinkedIn plugin tool that prevents restrictions?
@busmark_w_nika Ha, you're already halfway there with #4. You know exactly where the pain is. The tweak I'd make: those threads aren't just validation, they're your acquisition channel too. Right now you're reading the "help I got restricted" posts, so I'd start replying to them, be the genuinely helpful person there and the installs kind of follow on their own.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@roopesh_donde I haven't tried Claude research, gonna do that RN!
Ctruh Studio
Great thread, @busmark_w_nika . Everyone here (rightly) points to people building their own workarounds, that's the gold-standard problem signal. But I'd add a distinction I've had to learn the hard way: validating the problem and validating your solution are two different things, and it's easy to mistake the first for the second.
Loads of people will nod that a problem is real. Far fewer will change their behaviour for your specific answer to it. The signal I trust most now is when someone, unprompted, tries to use the thing for a case you didn't build for. That means they've stopped evaluating and started depending. Complaints validate the problem. Unexpected usage validates you.
Living this in real time actually, we launch in a few days, and the most reassuring moments haven't been "cool idea", they've been people using it in ways we didn't design for. That's when I stopped worrying.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@sharun_kanan in that case, when I want to see reactions on using the solution, I need to probably have a call with someone :D
Ctruh Studio
@busmark_w_nika Best! in-person reactions trumps anything other way. I've done this a few times and it works out nicely!
@busmark_w_nika @sharun_kanan This is such an interesting challenge with products used by teenagers. They usually won’t complain or explain what’s wrong - they’ll just quietly stop using it.
I’m curious if the signals are less about feedback and more about behavior: what they repeat, where they drop off, what they find their own ways to do.
Would you say unexpected usage is still the strongest signal, even when users are less likely to actively give feedback?
FetchSandbox
for me the clearest signal is when people are already workarounding the problem. not just complaining about it, but hacking together janky solutions with tools that weren't built for it. that means the pain is real enough to act on, just nothing good exists yet. with AgentGovern.ai i kept seeing teams using spreadsheets and Slack approvals to track what their AI agents did. that was enough. if people are duct-taping a solution together, the market's there, you just have to build the real version.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@rnagulapalle But that's when people already know your product. I need to nail that part when they will learn about my product :D
the strongest signal for me isn't a metric. it's when the first three users describe what your product does to a fourth user without you being in the room. no landing page copy, no pitch. their words.
if they get it wrong, the product isn't clear yet. if they get it right, you have a wedge. everything else (waitlists, upvotes, page views) can be gamed or explained away. actual users translating the value in their own voice cannot.
minimalist phone: reduce your screentime
@thenameisarian I need to describe my solution better, because some people still do not know :D
Checking search demand provide vital signal. I also search on Reddit, a very good place where threads reveals a lots about real pain user are facing in that idea and help build your roadmap.
However I believe facing problem first hand will help you in building/solving problem :)
The signal that convinced me was not a number, it was noticing myself still reaching for the tool even while overriding it. I built FounderFlow to sort through the noise across the three businesses I run, and early on I benchmarked it against how I actually triage things by hand. It was not great at first, about one in six flags I still override today, but I kept opening it every morning anyway. That told me more than any survey could have. If I ever stop reaching for something I built for my own use the moment things get busy, that is the real sign it does not work.
One signal I would add: instrument the validation itself. Whenever I put up a waitlist I tag every link I share with a source parameter, so I know not just how many signed up but which channel and which framing they came from. Fifty sign ups means little if they all came from one supportive community. Fifteen spread across three channels responding to the same problem framing is far stronger evidence.
The other test I rate highly is whether strangers describe the problem back to you in their own words. Search volume tells you the problem exists. A stranger spending effort to explain their situation in a comment tells you the pain is real enough to act on, and willingness to spend effort predicts willingness to pay better than any poll I have run.
Following a similar path with mine. I was the user first, that's basically why it exists. As a freelance data analyst, I was manually turning CSVs into client reports every week, and the actual "aha" was realizing every other analyst I talked to was doing the same manual grind.
The signal that mattered most for me wasn't search volume, it was watching what freelancers on Freelancer.com and Upwork were already paying for or complaining about not having. If people are already cobbling together a worse version of your idea with spreadsheets and screenshots, that's validation.
Post-launch, the signal I trust most is completely boring: who actually generates a report, not who signs up. Signups are free. A generated report means they hit the actual value prop.