Founders are builders, so the temptation is to start building. But the most expensive mistake a startup can make is spending a year on a product that solves a problem customers don’t care enough about.
Validation is not about proving you are right. It is about finding out, as cheaply and quickly as possible, whether you are wrong.
Five questions to answer first
- Problem: can customers describe the problem in their own words, and what does it cost them today?
- Customer: who exactly feels this pain most, by segment and role?
- Alternatives: what do they use now, including spreadsheets or doing nothing?
- Demand: will they commit something real, like a sign-up, a letter of intent or a pre-order?
- Price: what are they willing to pay, and does that support a viable business?
Run it as a sprint
Time-box the work. Interview around twenty potential customers, map the competitive landscape, and run one demand test such as a landing page or a pre-sale. At the end, make an explicit decision: go, pivot or stop.
A clear “stop” after a few weeks is a success. It frees you to work on an idea that has a market.
Not sure where your idea stands? Take the free Startup Validation Check to see which assumptions still need evidence.