2.1 – How to Validate
Jessica Livingston, Co-founder of Y-combinator said “Nothing else you do will matter if you are not making something people want. You can be the best spokesperson, the best fundraiser, the best programmer, but if you aren’t building a product that satisfies a real need, you’ll never succeed.”
This module highlights the importance of validating your proposed solution before going too far down the path of development and prototyping. Successful start-ups find the right solution to a well defined problem, and confirm that solution through research and significant deep thinking. You will find, however, that your upfront work of validation will become an ongoing part of your entrepreneurial journey.
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Outline the problem you are trying to solve
- Summarize assumptions about the problem you are trying to solve
Section A: More Questions than Answers
As a founder of a startup, you are doing something new. This means you will likely make some mistakes or lose direction along the way. So get comfortable with uncertainty and questions, because a startup founder’s job is to search for answers and to figure things out. Read this article by Dan Woods from Forbes Magazine. In this article, entrepreneurial expert, Steve Blank, says “A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.”
Martin Magill, Michele Young-Crook, Nick Baksh, and Tenille Spencer provide their perspective on uncertainty in the startup world and the role founders play in figuring things out.
Section B: Validating your Problem and Solution
Potential activities in the first year of a startup’s life include validating different parts of the business: from the problem, solution, and distribution channels, to the revenue model, and validation. This is an ongoing process.
To survive, a startup must do four things:
- Solve a problem. This is the easy part.
- Solve a problem worth solving. This means a customer will want to pay money for the solution. This is where most startups fail.
- Have the right solution to the problem. A lot of startups miss this target too.
- Build a minimal viable product (MVP) to test the hypotheses of points 2 and 3.
Startup founders Hanna Haponenko, Michele Young-Crook, and Sarah Butts share some insights on how they identified a specific problem, and the solutions they found to solve those problems.
Hard Truths
As Jessica Livingston says “If you aren’t building a product that satisfies a
real need, you’ll never succeed.” The key words in that quote are “satisfies” – meaning having the right solution – and, “real need” – meaning a problem that a customer cares about solving.
Take a few minutes to watch this video of Steve Blank, the godfather of Lean Startup, as he talks about validating with customer development.
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Next Steps – Validating with Experiments
After the problem and solution are validated, and the MVP gets built, then people need to use it. The ne