

Ask HN: Best process to validate idea and feature-set before MVP? - bdclimber14

I think there's a fine balance between early pre-coding research and initial MVP release. I'm wondering what others do to quickly validate an idea and initial feature set before developing an MVP. One way is to ask the HN community, but I feel like it's spammy, and never gets the desired results either (could also be my ideas).
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stephenou
Just go to your contacts, email them one by one with personalized message, or
utilize any connections you have on Facebook or Twitter.

You might find my idea validating blog post relevant:
[http://artsyeditor.com/2011/04/how-did-i-get-38-willing-
to-p...](http://artsyeditor.com/2011/04/how-did-i-get-38-willing-to-pay-
customers-before-writing-code/)

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bdclimber14
Thanks for that, I remember stumbling on it last week, but couldn't remember
where I saw it.

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regularfry
Paper prototyping will give you _very_ quick feedback, especially if you can
talk a living, breathing potential customer into being your guinea pig. In
fact, without that, it's worth a lot less.

If you can't find a hot lead to sit in the driver's seat, then that might tell
you something about both your idea and the market you're aiming at.

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ig1
Landing page?

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bdclimber14
That's part of it, but the real question is how to get people to know about
it, and not just anyone, but your target customer.

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ig1
How do you plan to find customers post-launch, presumably you have some sort
of marketing strategy in mind (whether it's cold-calling or buying
advertising), so use that technique to get some initial feedback as well.

