As a product builder, I’m building things full-time, whether it’s a venture newsletter, micro-products, or coaching founders to build tech products using my rapid MVP technique. For fun, I build AI article tool, event app, meal box app, SaaS tracker, sneaker app, and more.

Starting in 2023, I’ll be on a mission to help 1M builders create better products with the right mindset and toolset, one newsletter at a time. This is Part 1 of the multi-part product guide series which I’ll provide more building resources. Join my newsletter to receive the next product guide.

Today, I’ll share my frameworks for rapidly testing new app ideas and determine whether your idea is worth pursuing.

Note: This article was first published on Substack and Medium.

Getting started: the validation plan

The best way to begin testing new ideas is to make a “validation plan”.

Ideally, you should have a general idea of:

All of these factors can help you avoid creating the “wrong” prototype, which can lead to the wrong impression about whether the idea is working or not.

What to include in your idea validation plan?

Step 1: Set a Validation Goal

First of all, what exactly are you validating or testing?

I always tell founders: you can’t validate an idea. Instead:

You validate a series of factors that make the startup idea viable.

Here are some criteria that may influence the viability of an idea:

Example: Market-solution fit

If you’re just starting out with a startup idea, you’re probably at the market validation stage.

At this stage, you may want to conduct market research to determine whether there is customer demand for your potential solution.

Investigate how major players are solving customer problems and what niche markets are emerging to identify untapped opportunities.

Here’s my example for analyzing startup opportunities in the Airbnb for Metaverse / NFT.

Step 2: Create a Hypothesis Statement

When you first come up with an idea, you’re basing it on untested assumptions.

How do you know if it makes sense?

You can create a list of assumptions based on criteria like target audience, problem, product features, and pricing model.

Then, you rank each of these assumptions and test the riskiest assumption related to your idea.

This means that if you never find out if (the assumption) is viable, you will build the wrong products → no one pays/uses → no business → fail.

Example: List of hypothesis

Step 3: Set Up A Prototype

Now take one of your riskiest assumptions in Step 2 and build a prototype to test.

Let’s say you’re building a Gmail alternative that charges users $30/month to send emails (think Superhuman).

Your riskiest assumption might be:

Next, choose the right prototype:

Regardless of how you define a “prototype,” which can be used interchangeably at times, it is essentially a basic version of a product or service with a few core features that provide value to your users.

Factors to consider when building prototype:

[Guide] How to set up a prototype:

Previously, I’ve covered how to set up a no-code prototype. Read the full guide here

Step 4: Test Your Ideas

At this point, you should have created something to show your prospective customers.

The question is, where do you find people to test, get feedback and collect data points?

There are two ways to do that…

Organic techniques:

Paid techniques:

Step 5: Validate, Learn & Repeat

The next step is to assess how well your prototype performs.

Gather feedback, analyze metrics, and conclude whether you have validated or invalidated your assumption goals in Step 1.

Did they use it?

Did they pay for it?

Example of metrics that show validation signals:

After carefully examining your data, it will tell you whether to proceed, iterate, or abandon the idea and work on other ideas.

Danger Zone: How NOT to validate your ideas?

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