

Ask HN: How should we test if our idea is feasible and worth pursuing? - sparknlaunch12

We have an idea for a website but don't want to build it until we know there are interested customers.<p>We have already gained some early feedback from surveys and speaking to people. However we want a proper demo to gain real feedback. Essentially we want an early MVP to play with.<p>One idea was to create a short video showing how the concept would work. Then promote via YouTube and/or landing page.<p>Another was to create a basic sales landing page. Then measure traffic and feedback.<p>Alternatively build a couple of screens and ask HN users for initial feedback.<p>If anyone has some tips or strategies on how they validated their early ideas then please share. Thanks!
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AznHisoka
Build the product and focus on building 1-2 core features that constitute the
unique value proposition of your idea. Then show that to your core customers.

Core Feature. Core Customer. That means don't worry about silly trivial things
like spacing between pixels. And don't even talk to friends and see what they
think.

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sparknlaunch12
Building the site with core features will take time. We want to validate our
concept before building too much.

Is a website with screens and no working features sufficient?

Why shouldn't we talk to friends?

What recommendations do you have to getting the concept to core customers?

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AznHisoka
talk to people who have the problem you are trying to solve. Get inside their
head, and understand their pain point. Then build a MVP to solve that pain
point. you find these people thru forums, offline, networking, etc. it depends
on what your product is - it is an entreprise app? consumer app?

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sparknlaunch12
Consumer app. We guess that we need to spend more time on 'getting inside
heads' before doing too much more. If we better understand the pain points
then we should have a stronger argument for building our MVP.

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AznHisoka
then you will need to validate 2 things: the concept and your marketing
tactics. There are many consumer app ideas that many people would love, but if
you have no way of reaching that, it'll all be naught. So you need to come up
with tactics for marketing, whether it be getting bloggers to write about it,
spreading it thru forums, SEO, etc, and test those tactics. See if they are
viable long-term strategies.

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helen842000
I guess it depends on your niche. If you're solving a reasonably common
problem check out searches & potential traffic using Google keyword tool. You
need to brainstorm potential phrases used by your customers, see if you've hit
on something that is easily described in google search terms

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sparknlaunch12
We believe the idea is niche but will solve a common problem.

We will check out search terms but feel we need more of a demo to prove the
concept and our assumptions.

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debacle
Make some fake screenshots, throw up a 'coming soon' page, collect email
addresses.

Consider ~10% of those email addresses sales.

A youtube video would be a plus, but would be hard to demo.

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sparknlaunch12
Why would a video be harder to demo than screen shots?

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superslug
You can validate demand with simple landing page and adwords to drive traffic
based on features and benefits..

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tonyjwang
What kind of data would you need to validate/invalidate your idea?

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imcqueen
websites are an experience good. build some sliver of your vision to test the
water. eventually youre gong to have to build your product, so any time spent
doing something other than that is waste.

just do it. youll be happy you did

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sparknlaunch12
True, but is building the wrong product not a waste of time?

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skmurphy
You are assuming that it's a binary outcome--it's a right or wrong product--
when it's shades of gray and an opportunity for learning more about your
customers' needs. Consider proceeding by a sequence of prototypes that become
"less wrong" over time or even "good enough."

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sparknlaunch12
True. I guess we are trying to find something "less wrong".

Our objective is to i) validate our concept by receiving input from potential
customers and ii) with input build an "okay" prototype to take forward.

We want to do the first bit with limited development costs.

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skmurphy
Values of OK may range from 1% of the final version to 80%; the real test is
if the prototype advances your understanding of customer needs by triggering
additional insights through conversation. If you are not surprised you are not
learning and if you are avoiding conversations for fear of failure you are
learning much more slowly than you could by taking some prudent risks.

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sparknlaunch12
Thanks. Some good advice.

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alex_g
Those all sound like great ideas. You should choose one and the share your
results.

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090178
landing page for SEO and first beta users DB ?

Wordpress & wufoo ? Wordpress and MailChimp ?

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sparknlaunch12
All helpful tools. However how do we use them to test/validate idea?

