Avoiding the “If We Build It, They Will Come” Trap

A Playbook for Validating Your Solution

The previous article in this Customer Development series explained how to really get into the minds of your potential customers. If you did the work, you’re now armed with invaluable insights. That’s huge! You’re here now because you want to know for sure if they’ll commit (with their money, time, and effort) when you build the solution.

Here, I’m going to share what I’ve learned and how I’ve done this, so you can get started validating your solution. Ready?

From Discovery to Validation

The phase we call Customer Validation is where we separate real opportunities from wishful thinking. If your validation tests go well, you’ll have early traction before you even start building. If they don’t, you just saved yourself months (or years) of wasted effort.

Let’s jump into the playbook.

Define Your Hypothesis & Success Metrics