HOW TO START VALIDATING?

Accelerate your business with these expert tips on "How to start validating". Analyse and discover this TIP!

To start validating our hypotheses in a new business, the first thing we need to do is to identify who we think our particular customers are and what their problem is. At this initial stage, it is not necessary to include the solution as we have not yet spoken to anyone. Once we have identified our potential clients and the problem we want to solve, we must write down the most risky hypotheses we have. For example, one hypothesis could be that companies are not able to easily find a certain type of supplier. To validate this hypothesis, we need to go out into the real world and conduct interviews with other companies. In this case, we decided to interview at least 10 companies and ask them for their views on this issue. To consider the hypothesis to be true, we need at least 6 of these companies to confirm that this is a real problem.

If we find that the hypothesis is true, then we have validated the hypothesis. In this case, we could think about how to solve the problem, such as creating a marketplace to match supply and demand. However, It is also important to validate other hypotheses related to our business, such as whether our customers would be willing to pay for our services or products. In this case, we could send an offer to a mailing list we have with companies, hoping that at least 60% will sign up.

If we discover that the hypothesis is false and that our customers are not willing to pay, then we have to pivot, i.e. change our strategy to solve the problem. In this case, we could change our target customer and focus on suppliers, to validate whether they are willing to pay for our services. In a nutshell, To start validating our hypotheses in a new venture, it is important to identify our potential customers and the problem we want to solve, validate our hypotheses through interviews and testing, and be willing to pivot and change our strategy if necessary.

WE START VALIDATING

We include who we think the particular customers are, who we think will be early adopters and the problem they have. We do not include the solution for the time being, as we have not yet spoken to anyone. We point to the most risky hypotheses, the most risky of which we think is that companies are not able to easily find such suppliers. To validate whether this is true or not we will interview other companies (at least 10). In order to consider the hypothesis to be true, we need to be told that it is a real problem. We went out into the real world, did the relevant interviews and found that indeed, 7 of the companies interviewed confirm that it is a problem.

VALIDATED HYPOTHESIS

Now we can think about how we are going to solve the problem... and we decided that the best way is through a "marketplace" where supply and demand come together. The next hypothesis to be validated is that companies are willing to pay (€10 per month).

• For example: for the service, and we will send an offer to a mailing list we have with companies, hoping that 60% will sign up.

Unfortunately, although they showed interest in solving the problem, they are not willing to pay for it (only 20% have signed up).

INVALID ASSUMPTION

We have to pivotAnd we thought that even if the companies don't want to pay, maybe the suppliers do... so, we change the client and the problem, and we start experimenting. In this case, the first thing we want to test is whether the suppliers are willing to pay €50 per month to be registered. We tried a different mailing list, and we hope that 50% will sign up on the platform, and we have validated that our main customer is willing to pay! Although we are far from having validated the entire model, things are looking good.