Most startups fail because of the initial idea. This happens when a team comes up with an unnecessary product or fails to make it attractive to the market. To prevent such a development of events, we prefer to weed out failed ideas at the stage of their appearance. There is a special technique for the question “how to validate startup idea,” which we will discuss in the article.
Find a good startup idea
The idea phase is when you’re looking for a startup idea, but the idea doesn’t just fall out of the blue. The best way to find it is to go and do some observation. Talk to users and try to understand the problem they have in using existing solutions. These existing solutions are your future competitors, and the goal is to come up with the idea that is better than theirs. Market research is done for this. Once you’ve identified a user problem and a better value proposition than your competition, the first goal in how to validate the startup idea question is complete.
Look for good ideas
The idea phase is when you’re looking for a startup idea, but that idea doesn’t fall out of the blue. To find it, the best thing is to go and do some observation. Talk to users and try to understand the issue they have in using existing solutions. The idea phase is when you are looking for an idea for startups, but this idea does not fall from the sky.
To find it, the best thing is to go and do some observation. Talk to users and try to understand the issue they have in using existing solutions. These existing solutions are your future competitors, and the goal is to come up with the idea that is better than theirs. Market research is done for this. Once you’ve identified a user issue and a better value proposition than your competition, the first week’s goal is complete.
Immediately define the problem, the goal, and the added value
To test your idea, the first step is identification. You must define both the need of your future customers, your differentiating elements, your added value, and finally, your purpose.
Your idea can be bright, that’s for sure. But are you sure it really meets the client’s needs? To confirm this dimension, it will be necessary:
- to observe,
- to investigate,
- to analyze,
- to maintain.
All this concerns the clarity of the idea and its relationship with what your potential client is waiting for. And the enthusiasm created by a great idea acts as a dampener that you must know how to turn off in order to understand the real needs of your future customers. You need to get your prospective customers talking before you explain your idea. You will identify the problems that need to be solved in order to offer the perfect solution!
Furthermore, you never start a startup with a one-size-fits-all product or service: you have to choose a core goal, or you’ll exhaust yourself for nothing. When you want to talk to everyone, you talk to no one, especially when you don’t have millions!
Then you need to define your value proposition. What is the primary value-add of your offering to solve the problem these customers face? Your value proposition should convince your customer to dive into the purchase.
Your idea VS the market
You’ve figured it all out. Now you have to confront your idea of reality! Starting with talking about it… And not just to your friends and family, who will always find everything you do “very interesting.” Look for reviews, opinions, and ways to improve from outsiders: entrepreneur networks, contests, or startup weekends are good ways to collect feedback.
But don’t just settle for it. You have to decide your main goal first. For example, by launching a “landing page,” a web page that explains what you want to do, how, and why, and that allows you to collect the email address of people interested in your idea. Who knows, those first leads could be future customers. Then, if your main target is responding well to your idea (and you’re getting tons of emails), it’s time to put it to the test by going to the real test!
Create an MVP
One of the first steps to launching a successful startup is creating a minimal viable product or, simply put, a prototype. The minimum viable product is primarily there to test the waters and make sure that the market is waiting for this product and that your future company will be able to attract a sufficient number of paying customers. The prototype will help to identify the target audience of the product and learn about their expectations and preferences.
However, most entrepreneurs do not have a clear understanding of the process of creating and testing an MVP, which is a sure way to test the viability of the idea itself, its advantages, and its disadvantages. As a result of this ignorance, you can get skewed feedback from potential customers and give a false impression of the viability of the product.
A minimum viable product, offered by most custom development service providers such as Inoxoft, is often a “manual” version of a service that will then be automated. For example, for the retail market, the best test is to start by independently performing a service that is sold in a limited geographic area. A good MVP will allow you to adjust both your offering and your business model. If your customers pay to use the service you offer, you can upgrade to the developed version! And turn your idea into a thriving startup.
As you already know, MVP is essential for launching an idea. This allows you to test it without having to actually develop it and thus collect feedback from your target audience to create a product focused on the customer’s needs. Creating an MVP is quick and easy, thanks to a variety of free and easy-to-use tools.
