How do you test your idea before investing too much?

Before you devote yourself to your idea it is important to understand: 1) The problem that you are trying to solve 2) Your target audience 3) The pain points of your Target Audience(TA) 4) Whether or not your TA is interested in the product/services that you are selling 5) How much are they willing to pay for it? 6) Whether or not your solution is scalable 7) On the basis of which metrics can you identify your success or failures?

To test your idea before heavy investment: 1. Research your market. 2. Create a basic version. 3. Gather feedback. 4. Build a simple website. 5. Use social media. 6. Consider crowdfunding. 7. Run pilot programs. 8. Analyze competitors. 9. Seek mentor advice. 10. Conduct A/B testing. 11. Pitch to investors. These steps help assess your idea's potential with minimal cost and risk.

Before testing your idea, conduct a thorough analysis of the competitive landscape. Identify existing solutions or competitors in the market addressing the same problem.

Start by conducting thorough market research to validate the demand and competition for your product or service. Create an MVP or prototype to gather user feedback and iterate based on their insights. Consider running small-scale pilot tests or surveys to gauge interest and collect data on potential customer behaviour. Additionally, explore crowdfunding or pre-sales campaigns to assess early interest and secure initial funding. These steps will help you minimize risk and refine your concept before committing substantial resources.

Start with Design Thinking. Your goal is to get to 1st prototype, ideally within 2 weeks. This can be a mock product, a design, or a model - strive to show this to people so that you receive early feedback. This enables you to understand markets early (a prerequisite before testing them with an MVP). Learn about your target groups and aim to identify the MMF (Minimum Marketable Feature Set) that will help you to define your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) that you can use to test the market "for real".

When creating an MVP, prioritize a user-centered approach. Ensure that the core features you include directly address the pain points of your target audience.

Now that you have a clarity of how to proceed with the things, the first thing to do is to create a basic MVP. MVP is the basic version of your product that solves the major pain point of your users and if your users are willing to pay for that then you are in the game!

Creating a minimum viable product (MVP) is a pivotal step in idea testing. Think of it as a prototype that lets you test your concept with real users. It's all about delivering the core value without unnecessary features. This practical approach helps you validate your assumptions and gather essential feedback, paving the way for informed decisions. An MVP is like dipping your toe in the water before taking the plunge, ensuring you're on the right path without investing too much upfront.

Split the idea into small pieces. Identify a piece which is relatively easy to build and demanded by customer. Build that piece and start charging the customer for that piece. Build minimum sellable product and start adding more pieces and customers to grow.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is an essential concept for entrepreneurs. It's about building the most basic version of a product to test its viability. MVP reduces risk, validates markets, saves costs, speeds up launch, promotes iteration, focuses on users, and allows adaptability. It's a strategic approach that empowers entrepreneurs to make informed decisions and deliver value efficiently. In a fast-paced business world, MVP is a key tool for success.

1) You can offer it to a few of your best customers as an added value and get their feedback. Treating clients like strategic partners can strengthen your relationship and help think of better ways to package, sell and improve your product or service. 2) You can test it in a targeted market and compare results to how that market did year over year and how its performing to other similar markets. If the first market test goes well, start adding it to other markets.

Another great way to test and get genuine shopper reaction to a product is to utilize eye tracking. It can help determine what stands out on shelf and also what you need to do to convert that noticeability into a purchase. The last thing you want is for your product to blend in on shelf. Unseen is unsold.

Before going to fundraise every entrepreneur needs to have a proof of concept (POC). Once you decide what your POC is, you need to document every step of the process. This could be social proof, customer testimonials, numbers. It really depends what your business is. In F&B which is my speciality, we have done street stands, market halls, corporate catering, dinner clubs. Be creative, whatever industry you are on, there are more then one way for POC. One of the main points with POC is addressing a problem your concept is trying to address. And POC is actually a documented solution to that problem.

The ideas presented in this article resemble the ideas of Design Thinking, The Lean Startup, and Agile Organizations. However, several organizations are still hierarchical and follow standard procedures, primarily when they must ensure compliance. In that case, consider Kotter's dual operating systems approach, suggesting that agile and hierarchical organizations can coexist. One way to implement that is to host a launchpad or a sandbox, as large insurance companies do to test FinTech business models.

I have been working with a start up that is making circular fashion sexy. They have an app that enables swapping and has seen steady use Growth. But the truth behind the numbers is a different story. The willingness to pay of users is super low. The big idea behind is to b able to test your assumptions continuosly. This can mean the difference between survival and bust for a startup. You want to run a data centered approach to running an experiment to validate and invalidate. Three things to remember: 1. Always define your sample size. Can vary with assumption. 2. Look at only your focus group and make sure to remove any bias 3. Run your experiments in iterative steps and give a sufficient timeline (example, a week)

Don't fall in love with your solution! Make sure that you analyze from a fresh perspective, and get external views and experts to support you. Before each experiment, set the criteria to success before you get out of the building and test your hypothesis. After each experiment, log your: - Results - Learning points - Decisions After coaching 1-on-1 more than 2,900 entrepreneurs from 54 countries, I see a common mistake: You validate the problem. You validate the solution. You forget to validate the price and revenue model. Make sure you go through the 3 validations before you launch.

Instead of rigidly adhering to predefined outcomes, be open to unexpected insights that may arise from user feedback and data analysis. This flexibility allows you to adapt your solution more effectively to the evolving needs of your target audience.

Never think that the product is in its best stage now and there can be no further improvements in it, this is a very wrong thinking and will take you towards making more losses. One should always try to innovate new products and also try to bring some changes with the existing product. A way of doing this is again keeping in touch with your customers regularly and taking feedback from them time and again.

The key about entrepreneurship is that it a frame of mind and philosophy to search for 'truths' and rapidly acting towards them. So 'Pivoting' and 'Iterating' are fundamental to a startup success. This is also the advantage startups have over incumbents and market leaders. Start ups can be nimble and fast in changing direction, agile in letting things go and adopting new things. but what is the best way to make these iteration decision? Here is a framework to ask yourself these questions: 1. Am I looking at the right metric to understand growth of the Startup? 2. Is the data validating the assumptions that are fundamental to the startup survival? 3. What is the risk of sticking to the current process and what could that mean?

In my view, analyzing collected data and iterating is the vital final step in idea testing. It involves comparing actual results with expectations, identifying MVP strengths and weaknesses, and assessing market opportunities and threats. Based on this analysis, I can pivot, persevere, or abandon the idea. Pivoting means adjusting the hypothesis or solution to better-fit customer needs, persevering involves improving the MVP for further testing, and if necessary, I can gracefully move on to a new idea. This data-driven iteration process is key to refining and ensuring the success of any concept or product.

An critical factor to success is to design your business model in concert as you design and develop your product. Often early stage ventures fail, not because of a failure in their product but a failure in their business model. A good creative design process as declared in this article describes the need for customer centricity in design, development and testing. But a successful business that takes your product to market also requires stakeholder centric considerations including what your funders, bankers, suppliers, distributors, employees need for their support in your success.

PRETOTYPE AND TEST LIKE TESLA As innovation facilitator of 100+ projects, I like to share how Tesla interested buyers for their first car. In 2003, the founders of Tesla had an ambitious idea (an all-electric 2-door sports car). In order to convince potential buyers to order its car, Tesla created a pretotype of what the car would look like. Lotus supplied Tesla with a ‘glider’ Elise - which was filled with models of key components. This was not a prototype, because the vehicle didn’t function. Tesla was able to show buyers a close proxy for the final design. Tesla asked “Will you put down a $5,000 deposit to have it built to order? From this test Tesla secured several hundred deposits, a non-trivial result to reassure their Investors

Ultimately your success is based on how well you define your assumptions around your MVP and business plan & financial forecast. It doesn't need to be hard (we can help), but you do need to have a plan to answer these questions: 1. How much capital will I need to succeed? 2. What resources do I need (people & services) 3. How will revenue look like by month, quarter, and year for the next 1 to 3 years? 4. How will I produce my MVP and at what costs? These are just a few key questions that will help you develop a solid pathway to profitability.

You're only in business if the customer segments you are targeting not only need/want your service or product (value prop) but also can afford and are willing to pay for your offerings. Be careful not to launch just because the value proposition is good and relevant and you have a considerable size of INTERESTED market. It's not enough to have an interested market, they have to have the capacity and willing to pay for the service or product.

One crucial aspect to consider is the importance of a growth mindset throughout the entire process. Embracing the idea that failures and setbacks are opportunities for learning and growth can significantly impact the testing and iteration phases. It encourages resilience and innovation in the face of challenges, fostering an environment where creative solutions can thrive. Additionally, fostering open communication and collaboration within the team is key. Encouraging diverse perspectives and fostering a culture of continuous improvement can lead to more successful testing and iteration outcomes.