Ask HN: How do you validate your idea?

7 points by hemezh 12 years ago | 7 comments

I have an idea of a mobile app that makes sharing location easy.

How can I know if people actually want something like that or is it just me?

Are there some industry standard methods for that?

esdailycom 12 years ago |

I recently talked to nearly 100 entrepreneurs for my book titled "How We Did It". One thing that I asked most of them was how to validate the business idea before embarking on it. One common answer was to set up a landing page and advertise it using the right keywords on Adwords. Are people proceeding towards the purchase/download from here? In that case, there is a market and you could work on your idea.

Incidentally, the chapter about idea validation is available for free here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0evrb66hvg4ucoy/Preview-copy.pdf

This is the Amazon link for the book : http://www.amazon.com/How-Did-entrepreneurs-struggles-experi...

cgulovsen 12 years ago |

It really depends on the situation. In a recent endeavor, I took to sites like Quora, Reddit, HN, and I went outside and talked to people on the street.

It's all about asking relevant questions that open ended and not biased. In the recent experience I had validating an idea, I ended up getting great nuggets of information that helped us tailor our app to address the pain points users found in existing products. It's also important to note here that this doesn't mean that you're guaranteed money; all you have done at this point is understand that the issues exist and that you (hopefully) have a solution. Hope this helps!

zealon 12 years ago |

The most common feature I've found in successful tech products is ease of use. For this, a product should be intuitive. My definition of "intuitive product":

- Simple, but useful: it must possess not too many parts or features, just the most useful ones.

- Familiar, but innovative: the features it possess must look like other features from other well-known products, but have recognizable improvements also.

HTH ;)

nhebb 12 years ago |

Write down 3 or 4 ideas (including your target idea) and poll your friends, family, coworkers, etc. Ask which one they would pay for. Have "none of the above" as the final option. If you directly asked what they thought of the idea, you might get a biased response. People tend to be encouraging - even if it's a bad idea. The little poll should help mitigate the bias.

joshbert 12 years ago |

Check out this article:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/04/10/a-guide-to-valida...

I read it and really enjoyed it. It seems like a great fit for your situation.

taksintik 12 years ago |

If monitizable a concept can be tested using Adwords,FB or bing ads.

danieltillett 12 years ago |

The answer depends on how much money you have :)

More seriously nobody really know what will be the next big thing.