Idea Validation Field Guide

User validation – Why should you do it?

User validation is an integral part of validating your product concept. When you start out your journey as a founder, you start with three assumptions: that there’s a problem, that there’s a bunch of people who care about that problem enough to want it fixed and would pay money to see it fixed, and last, but not least, that your product is the solution they’ve been looking for all along.

Working your way through the exercises that teach you how to do user validation – specifically how to run user interviews – will help you discover if the assumptions you’ve based your product concept on is what’s actually happening in reality as well. They will walk you through the process of:

• Setting up the interview structure depending on your research goals

• Finding people to talk to and keeping track of your conversations

• Drawing conclusions from your interviews 

Expect each exercise to make sense even if you’ve never done any kind of product research or have no tech background of any kind. All you need is an open mind, a willingness to sit down and talk to people, and patience when the work gets a bit nit-picky.

To make matters even simpler, each exercise comes in the same structure:

• What you need – any decisions, previous exercises you should have completed, or resources you should have at hand
• What to do – which explains step by step and with examples and available templates what you have to achieve
• While you work – what to pay special attention to while you’re working, in order to not leave out any important information.

This process will give you insights from the user perspective and gives you qualitative data.