NeilRamp

I've given nearly 100 free mentoring sessions over the last 5-6 months. I realised early on that I had to be strict about the processes I used in order for this not to become overwhelming, and to take over my own startup and personal work.

This is the simple process I developed to ensure it never takes more than 1 hour a day of my time.

I think we might have a slightly different understanding of validation. For me, really understanding the problem, and how your product solves that, is validation.

You say nail and hammer, and I say key and lock... ;-)

Thanks for the comments, and kind words!

The difference between startup and product is simple, and it's something I'm guilty of conflating (along with many others). The product is what you're selling, and the startup is the organisation built around it to bring it to market. I should really have used the word Product instead of Startup.

Thanks for the thoughts around the Read A Book bullet point. Yes, I think it could do with being re-written!

Yeah. It's definitely a case of trying to do the best job quickly. Validation should be an ongoing process for the pretty much the whole lifecycle of a startup. I think most of us aren't that good at it, or subconsciously avoid doing it, a lot of the time. This is my own effort at trying to streamline that process somewhat.

Thanks for your feedback. Genuinely appreciate it!

Yes, surveys are low quality. But personally I find that if they're well designed then you'll get more data out of them than you would a sign-up page. And there are always plenty of people out there who are happy to do an anonymous survey, but not give you their email address. Sometimes that's the best data. You would miss that with asign-up page.

Interesting. I clearly need to dial back on my enthusiasm for it, then!

Ah ha, sorry. I misinterpreted your comment :-)

Did you read the whole section of the post where I recommend reading The Mom Test.... ;-)

p.s. I've read Lean Startup, but will check out The Launchpad, thanks!

Ha! I promise I don't receive a penny from the sales of the book. I wish I did, given how much I've recommended it over the years...

Great, I'll be in touch.

Thanks! I've read Running Lean, but will check out BMG.

Thank you!

Thanks for the feedback. Some useful insight.

Yes, agreed that there's much more that can be done, but this is attempting to put a basic framework around the very early stages of validation (which should obviously be an ongoing process, anyway).

It's frustrating because obviously stuff like persona building should be in there, but at some point if you include everything it becomes too unwieldy to be a simplistic, quick process. I'd love to get to a point where this is both simple AND comprehensive. But I expect that's a bit of a holy grail.

I'm spending time refining this, so would be genuinely interested in any feedback, or ways to improve.

It's absolutely not the finished article, and intended to be quick and deliver results.

I suppose you can speak about it in a few different ways. Whether that's Product Market Fit, or No Market Need. I was going on this research - https://www.forbes.com/sites/deniselyohn/2019/05/01/why-star...

Yes, agree that these are all part of the problem, as far as I see it!

I think customer interviews are definitely part of the mix, if done right (have you read The Mom Test?), but they don't give you 100% clarity. Perhaps just a more solid hypothesis...

So you think it might be a resource thing? If they had more time/money/runway they would possibly do a better job?

Agreed that it's easy to think you've validated by getting a handful of people to nod enthusiastically at a Powerpoint!

Thanks!

Just shout if you have any questions we can answer about this.

Neil (the CEO behind this) - ;-)

Thanks for posting this. Just got pointed at it.

Anyway, I'm the guy in all the photos. If anyone has any questions, I'm happy to answer them!