We're in the middle of validation work on a new SaaS product. The temptation is always to "just build it"—to skip the hard work of understanding whether anyone actually wants what you're making. But we've seen too many products fail because they were built for imaginary customers with imaginary problems.
Here are the 10 things we're doing over the next 60 days. Each step builds on the last, creating a foundation of evidence that either gives us confidence to proceed or saves us from a costly mistake.
Write a One-Page Problem Summary
Document the problem and look for evidence in the market. Before we do anything serious, we make sure the problem is real and there are enough people willing to pay for a solution.
Ground your idea in reality before investing time and money.
Write a Manifesto
Combine the problem statement with a vision for the solution. This becomes your North Star—a document that articulates why this matters and what you're building toward.
Clarity of purpose attracts the right people.
Conduct a Topical Webinar
Host a webinar focused on the problem/solution. Pay attention to who attends and what questions people ask. Those who engage are candidates for your focus group.
Engagement signals genuine interest.
Create a Red Team Report
Break down all the ways this project will fail. GPT helps here, and this is one of my favorite things to create. Anticipating failure modes helps you prepare for them.
Stress-test your assumptions before the market does.
Run Market Research Surveys
Send a survey to your existing list (free) and spend $1,000 on new survey responses from a new audience. Tools like SurveyMonkey can help with market research, customer sentiment, and message testing. It's pay to play but worth it.
Quantitative data validates qualitative hunches.
Map Competitors and Differentiators
Identify the competitive landscape and what makes you different. Pay attention to any competitors that come up in target customer conversations. Again, GPT helps here.
Know the battlefield before you enter it.
Create an Investor-Ready Pitch Deck
Put together a pitch deck suitable for investors. Even if you're not raising money from VCs, it's useful to clarify thinking and positioning. The deck should include "back of napkin" math for building, operating, revenue, and profit.
If you can't pitch it, you probably can't sell it.
Assemble an Advisory Panel
Build from engaged survey responses, webinar participants, and target customers. Compensate these people for their time. We spend significant time on Zoom calls with real people, because a persona isn't a person. There's no automation, efficiency, or AI that can replace this.
Real conversations beat imaginary customers.
Compile Thematic Research
Pull together material from books, podcasts, and articles. This research review strengthens your core framework, helps articulate the problem, and provides talking points.
Standing on the shoulders of giants accelerates credibility.
Continue Building the Prototype
Keep refining the prototype to serve alpha and beta customers. It's introduced and utilized at several points along the way. This is a constant refinement process—we build with customers, not just for them.
Ship early, learn fast, iterate often.
Why Go Through All This?
Some might read this list and think, "This is a lot of work and expense…just build and launch." But that rarely works out, does it?
If someone is not willing to put the time, energy, and resources (comparatively small) into validation, why would we think they have what it takes to actually build, run, and grow the thing?
The 60 days we spend validating will save months—maybe years—of building the wrong thing. And if we discover the idea won't work? That's not failure. That's the validation process doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Need Help Validating Your Idea?
We offer a structured Validation Sprint that helps you understand whether your product idea has legs—before you invest serious time and money building it.
Learn About Validation Sprints