How do you validate the market before launching a product? What's your experience? 🤔

Question

I am a product manager, and I encounter many problems in my daily work that need to be solved one by one. During the process of solving these problems, certain solutions are formed. If I find that there isn't an appropriate alternative product, I will package it into a small MVP product and take it to the community for validation. A good product can't simply follow trends; it needs to be grounded in real needs. Even if the interface isn't aesthetically pleasing, as long as it meets the demand, people will use it.

Of course, there is still a big difference between a commercialized product and an MVP in terms of architecture. After you complete the MVP validation, you need to find a viable path to commercialization and gradually implement it step by step.

Luckily, I have a small but dedicated group of development partners who help me turn product ideas into reality, and that is very important.

How did your products start? Why not share your story?

Adriadna Mascioli · Accepted Answer

My approach is to create a simple prototype and share it with a small group of potential users. Their feedback helps me tweak and improve the product before a full launch.

Cora Genevieve Holloway · Answer

Speaking with potential customers and getting their feedback is crucial for validating the market need. Creating a landing page to gauge interest is also a smart move. Looks like you've already seen strong validation with the number of mentors and founders using your platform! Keep iterating based on their feedback to ensure you're solving a real pain point.

Benson Gao · Answer

@ankur_sharma20 Thank you for sharing your experience, Ankur! The challenges you mentioned are exactly what many founders with a technical background face in the early stages—mastering areas beyond technology can often require a lot of effort. I'm glad to hear that you validated your idea by creating a landing page and communicating with entrepreneurs, which is indeed a direct and effective approach.

The results of WiseAdvisor are impressive! Over 800 founders joined and more than 9,000 mentoring minutes logged show that you've built a platform full of value. I look forward to hearing more of your success stories, and I hope we can continue to share our entrepreneurial experiences with each other.

Ankur Sharma · Answer

I’m a software engineer, and in my last startup, I ran into a lot of challenges in areas I didn’t know much about. I was good at coding, but things like marketing, finance were new to me. Looking for answers on YouTube or blogs took a lot of time, and I realized I needed more direct help to make progress.
To validate this idea, I created a landing page, spoke with many entrepreneurs, and posted surveys in LinkedIn groups to gather feedback.
I was confident about WiseAdvizor, and so far, 18 mentors joined the platform. Over 800 founders have registered, and together, they’ve logged more than 9,000 mentoring minutes—all with no negative reviews!

YanXu · Answer

I usually look up my product's competitors and do market research to see how this type of product makes people feel and then cut through the existing product's pain points to form my own product

Answer

I usually start by talking to potential users to understand their pain points.

Ankur Sharma · Answer

I’m a software engineer, and in my last startup, I ran into a lot of challenges in areas I didn’t know much about. I was good at coding, but things like marketing, finance were new to me. Looking for answers on YouTube or blogs took a lot of time, and I realized I needed more direct help to make progress.
To validate this idea, I created a landing page, spoke with many entrepreneurs, and posted surveys in LinkedIn groups to gather feedback.

Answer

Validating the market is definitely important before launching. I'd suggest things like: 1) Reaching out to your target customers directly to get their feedback on your idea 2) Building a simple landing page to gauge interest and collect signups 3) Posting in relevant online communities to start discussions and get input 4) Running some small ad campaigns to landing pages to see if you can drive interest. The key is engaging with real potential customers as much as possible to pressure test your concept before investing too heavily in building it out. Hope this helps, and best of luck with the launch!

Answer

Definitely validate before launch! I'd recommend interacting directly with your target customers - get a pilot group of early adopters to test the product, do surveys/interviews to understand their needs and pain points, and get detailed feedback. Also consider running ads to a simple landing page to gauge interest. The key is getting real data and insights from actual users vs. just guessing. It takes more time upfront but saves a ton of headache (and $$) down the line. Sounds like you're on the right track though, 800 signups is awesome for a new product! 🙌

How do you validate the market before launching a product? What's your experience? 🤔

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