3 Market Validation Questions that Work
Validating a business idea, product or technology in a market can be challenging. It can be time-consuming when you really don’t have any time to spare. An idea may incredibly specific or truly new and disruptive, making the task of finding potential customers to interview almost impossible. The concept may be highly technical, reducing the pool of people to interview even further. Even when you can clear these hurdles, the end result may be inconclusive or provide unreliable data simply because the questions asked didn’t really validate or challenge the business idea. Most of these hurdles are an unavoidable necessity. Asking bad questions is absolutely avoidable.
Yes Bias and Friendlies
Too often, we see founders in the early stages of development asking people questions like, “If you had this (insert product/ service/solution name), would you buy/ use it?”
People are biased to say yes for a couple of reasons. First, it’s easy to say yes when no actual money is exchanging hands. Second, it’s the fastest way out of the conversation.
This “yes” bias is compounded by interviewing people they know well, or “friendlies” - a term I’m sure I’ve stolen from someone. The friendlies are usually pulling for you. They want you to succeed. They probably think you’re smart, capable and they like you. It’s very easy and even appealing for them to tell you exactly what you want to hear. Unfortunately, this isn’t very helpful.
Asking Better Questions
Here are three questions I recommend anyone ask when doing initial customer interviews. You may have others or choose to word it differently but these are three I have seen lead to meaningful insights.
1. Is this a problem?
Seems simple of course but you must start with the basics. To get some depth to this answer, ask a few short quantifying and qualifying follow-up questions like:
“How often?”
“How much?”
“For who?”
“When?”
If your solution only solves a small problem that happened one time, 10 years ago, to one person, it may not represent something with enough frequency or impact to deserve a solution. If you hear this repeatedly, your solution may not have an important problem to solve.
Also, be willing to prompt your subjects a bit if they come back with a short “no” to this question. Provide an example scenario or reframe the question. Don’t, however, refuse to accept “no” as an answer. If it isn’t a problem… it isn’t a problem.
2. How are you solving this problem now?
This question highlights how much effort is being put into solving the problem. Complex, disparate or labor-intensive solutions often represent opportunities for replacement. Don’t be caught off-guard if the answer is “we aren’t.” They may think the problem is insignificant or the incumbent solution is too expensive. Here, qualifying/ quantifying follow-up questions can be helpful as well.
3. What is it worth to solve this problem?
How badly do they need to solve this? What is the relative value of a solution that is more effective, more efficient or both? What downstream effects does this have on the rest of the organization? Can you translate the value of solving the problem into dollars and cents? Answers to this question not only provide insight on the depth of motivation to solve the problem but also what a potential pricing model may look like.
Ask Now or be Sorry Later
You are looking for reliable, dispassionate, quantifiable feedback from these interviews. You need to complete dozens of interviews with “non-friendlies” and force yourself to aggregate the results analytically, even when that data signals your solution may not be worth solving. Most frequently though, this feedback allows founders to iterate on the solution, pivot to another market or re-prioritize a feature set. Changes to your approach at an early stage are exponentially cheaper, can accelerate the learning curve and more clearly inform a product roadmap. Understanding market-fit before committing time and capital to development, engineering or marketing campaigns is a crucial validation requirement.