Validating a Business Idea

[Hared]

Hey all. Im a Software Developer and want to build a mobile application that I think could really help a lot of people and hopefully turn it into a viable business, but I’m feeling cautious about just jumping straight in and spending a lot of time building without first validating the idea. I’ve spoken to family and friends who all seem positive towards it however I feel they may be biased.

Is there a good tactic you guys reach for when starting a new business to validate the need for it?

 

[fisicx]

Build an MVP, launch and see what happens.

With the right sort of marketing it could be viable but you do need something for people to see and demo.

 

[Hared]

Build an MVP, launch and see what happens.

With the right sort of marketing it could be viable but you do need something for people to see and demo.

This is the current plan but I’m wondering if there’s any merit to trying to validate the idea in other ways even before MVP

 

[Shopclicks]

I’ve spoken to family and friends who all seem positive towards it however I feel they may be biased.

Who is the app going to be targeted at? The general public or a specific group/s?

 

[fisicx]

This is the current plan but I’m wondering if there’s any merit to trying to validate the idea in other ways even before MVP

No cheap but a service like this may do the job:

All your user research. One platform.

Move faster and build with confidence – with usability testing, surveys, interviews, and recruitment in one place. Sign up for free!

www.lyssna.com

 

[Craiglincs]

Ive not used it as I'm not in software but I like Justin Wilcox stuff at customer development labs.

 

[pavp]

There's not a lot of information that you've provided but here's some ways we have validated our initial MVP:

1. Read the Mom Test- best book there is to doing user research to validate ideas (it's super short!). And friends and family are not a great signal (as this book says)
2. Talk to customers who would use and pay for the product, for us they may be aware of or tried competitor products but explaining (initially) and mocking up (figma) our unique differentiators led them to become paying customers
3. Post and get feedback from communities like reddit for your specific target audience eg: if you were selling to startups "r/startups" or if you were selling to wedding planners "r/weddingplanning" or this community, the aim is to try and get feedback and not sell at this stage, so "how would you do {x}" is a good format
4. create social media profile and landing page: aim to post about different areas around your target audience with 80% about general information 20% about your product and services

Good luck!

 

[Ozzy]

I’ve spoken to family and friends who all seem positive towards it however I feel they may be biased.

This is spot on, friends and family want to support you and see you do well so have the best intentions to give you all the wrong advice.

You can post information on here, and ask for people to tell you why it won't work. Get the negative feedback, the challenges and the difficulties you will face. By getting all the challenges out there in the open, and because you're asking for it you get it, you then know what challenges you will have to come up with a plan to overcome.

When I have some crazy idea I ask my co-directors/board to tear it apart. Rip me a new one, absolutely go to town, because I want to try and cover any possible things I've missed.
Sometimes, despite this, we still miss things and not all ideas work, but I do like people to critic things. Nothing worse than just being in an echo chamber of back-patting and well done's to build a business plan.

 

[Nick@Daydot]

If you have access to the target audience in person, do some sketches, sit down with them, and get feedback. Explain as little as possible to see what they spontaneously say, and go from there.

You could do similar in forums. If you don't want to expose design ideas at least get feedback on the concept and features that are desirable.

Without knowing you I can say that in general (with exceptions) developers do not make good UX/UI designers as they are different skill sets. The technical view is not the user view, so I'd say to validate the idea lo-fi as far as you can, then see if you can team up with a designer unless you are confident you can do that as well.

Ultimately there's then a lot more to running a business however good the concept is that you'll have to work through.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

JFDI.

If you are developer earning on your job, you can develop the app in your spare time, without financial cost to you.