How to Validate Any Business Idea is a free online course that will give you the tools and the process for deciding if your idea has the potential to succeed. The key takeaway from this course is the One Page Startup Validation Plan worksheet. This powerful focusing tool draws your attention to the right steps, in the right order. It prompts you to think about your business idea in a structured way.
The tool helps you generate goals and tasks for validating your business idea. You can then feed these goals into your strategic planning process. Combine the two and you get a robust framework for determining what needs to be done and when you will get to it.
Develop Your Business Idea
The first step covered in the course is to start with “why”. Why would people want your product or service? What specific problem have you identified that you believe people will pay you to solve?
Once you establish the existence of the problem, what is your solution? What is your product or service, and how does it address the problem?
You now have the why and the what. Next, think about the who. Who is your target market? What is most important to them? What are the major benefits they will get from your product or service? Remember, features are not the same as benefits! Focus on the benefits your customers gain.
Once you finish thinking through these sections in the worksheet, you should have a good idea about who your customer is, what your product or service is, and how it will help the customer. Now it is time to get online and see if you can validate your idea through research.
Conduct Research Online
This section in the plan will guide you and help track your research. At this point you are looking at various sources to see if indeed the problem you identified has an addressable market (customers).
The objective of your research is to find data; facts about the market you intend to address. This information will help determine:
- What solutions are people currently paying for, and how popular are those options?
- Is the market large enough to be profitable?
- Is the market growing or shrinking?
With research in hand, answer each question in the Idea Validation Criteria. Sum the results from your answers. This tool will not guarantee you have a potential winner, but it could help identify a dead end if the score is very low.
If the research looks promising, and your validation score is high enough, continue on!
Prepare to Test Your Idea
As the instructor points out, stating and testing your Assumptions is a critical part of the process. Your research so far may lead you to believe customers exist and they will want your product or service. It is not enough to simply believe this. You must go out and find potential customers and ask them.
Review each assumption in the worksheet. Restate it clearly and specifically for your product or service. For example, one assumption is that customers will pay for it. Be specific:
- At least 50 customers will buy my digital comic book for a price of $5.99.
Contact customers and ask the questions. Do your assumptions stand? If not, this does not mean all is lost. Instead, consider how you might react to the feedback, make a change, and have a stronger product or service as a result. This is a pivot. And you might find yourself pivoting multiple times through this validation process. That’s OK!
The course goes into more detail about getting your message in front of potential customers, since you need them to see the material in order to react and give you feedback. Check out my course guide to see my notes on this part of the lectures.
Evaluate The Test Results and Decide Next Steps
After spending up to 2-3 months promoting your message and gathering feedback, it is time to evaluate the results of your test.
First, clearly state the objective results. The outcomes. These are the facts. Some results might be:
- Units sold in a pre-sale on Amazon
- CTR (click-through rate) on a Facebook ad
- Email sign-ups on a landing page
As the instructor points out, be careful with metrics that are not actual sales. While helpful, they are only indicators. The true measure of success is finding customers willing the pay for your product or service.
Second, analyze the results. What conclusions can you draw from these results? Ultimately, answer the question: Was the idea validated?
Finally, based on your results and analysis, decide what to do next. Proceed with your idea? Pivot and run another test? Set this idea aside and look for something more promising? Armed with real information which either validates or invalidates your assumptions, you can confidently decide on your next steps, moving yourself and your product or service in the right direction.
Conclusion
If you are looking to launch a new business, enrolling in How to Validate Any Business Idea should absolutely be one of your first steps.
- The worksheet that comes with the course is a valuable tool.
- The instructor’s guidance will help you work through the process every step of the way.
- The course is free!
I recommend the course, and I recommend you download my course guide, which includes my notes from the course.
