Test and Validate
Software is expensive to build. Period.
No matter your technical proficiency or your skilled use of existing technology, the process is expensive, abstract, and fraught in the best of times. Indeed many MVP’s (minimum viable product) can cost anywhere from $75k to upwards of $200k.
This brings me to one of my mantras. You may have heard the phrase “fail fast” if you’ve spent any amount of time in the entrepreneurial community. While I believe this is sound advice, I believe it’s missing something that I would like to amend it with.
“Fail fast and fail cheap.”
Fail Cheap
As we’ve already established, building software at any scale is an expensive proposition. So, wouldn’t it be great if we could test a cheap, dare I say “fake,” version of our idea before we commit to the big money?
Well, thankfully we can. And you should.
Whenever possible, you should seek to test and validate your idea using the cheap, if not free, tools available to you. The best part is, this test doesn’t even have to be fully functional. It only has to functional enough to:
Communicate the big idea
Allow for exposure to the product concept
Generate useful feedback
Pen and paper is best, but other tools like clickable slide decks, visual prototypes, and manual data collection and processing via meetings or focus groups can all generate a tremendous amount of valuable information that will help you refine your concept to the point of having a viable product before spending the money to build it.
Or, you may decide to scrap the idea altogether. And that’s ok.
Failure is a part of the entrepreneurial journey. The key is to fail fast and to fail cheaply. By creating barely functional prototypes to test and validate your idea, you can do both.
Customer Discovery
These same principles apply to customer discovery.
The process of prototyping and testing won’t just allow you to refine your concept, it will also allow you to better understand who your ideal customer is and what it is that they really want from you and your product.
This is why the test and validate stage should be done repeatedly with every concept before deciding to proceed or scrap it. You aren’t just looking for feedback on the concept; You’re aiming to discover who it is that really wants and can benefit from it.
For this reason, regardless of the prototyping method or tools you use, we recommend several different tests with several different groups of people.
After all, it’s Product-Market Fit we’re looking for, not just Product Fit.
Some Ideas for Testing and Validating Your Concept
Google is your friend.
Google’s free suite of tools are amazing for testing ideas. Here’s one way that can work:
Take your concept, write it down, and convert it to a PDF. Then, send your test audience an email explaining the concept and prompting them to follow the link to download your PDF for more information.
Track downloads and tie them to email addresses so you can follow up with questions and gather feedback.
Or, let’s say you’re building a website to collect and process information into documents.
For this, use Google Forms to build a crude workflow to collect information. Get agreement from a few test subjects and send them the form to fill out. Gather the data and manually create the documents to send to participants.
Follow up with a questionnaire or phone interview to gather feedback.
Create a Clickable Slide Deck
These days Powerpoint and Keynote can do way more than display information statically. You can create a slide deck that is interactive with fillable form sections and all.
Use these tools to create mockups of your idea (website or app) and send them to people to use. Ask them to poke around, look for flaws, and write down all of their thoughts, comments, and criticisms. Collect this feedback and either repeat or proceed to building your MVP.
This method works particularly well for software that will be delivered as a web app or even mobile application. As we know, UI/UX are increasingly critical parts of software adoption, so the ability to test the workflow and make changes is super helpful.
Conduct a Focus Group
Finally, one of the oldest and most reliable methods for testing and validating ideas is Focus Groups.
A focus group is an event held either in person or online that gathers a fixed group of people to interact with an idea or product and generate feedback for the creators. The format for these groups is malleable. For example, if you have a clickable slide deck, you may bring several laptops and have everyone interact with the slide deck and collect feedback in real time.
Or maybe you’re testing messaging for yoru concept. In this case, you can record video or audio of the messaging samples and replay them for your focus group to gather feedback.
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What’s your next big idea? And how can you creatively test and validate it before moving to the building phase? Feel free to share in the comments and, as always, let us know if we can be helpful to you as you work to create something great!