Validate your proposition with brutally honest end users

Brutally honest end users will save your start-up.

The odds are stacked against all start-ups, in fact only 10% ever make it to becoming sustainable within two years of launch.

Your team, your execution and the availability of capital will of course play a huge role, but your proposition is what really counts.

I’ve been involved in two startups where product validation was crucial in defining the business model and understanding if we’d even have a product that people would buy. In both cases the business model had to be fundamentally changed to ensure the proposition we had would be loved by consumers.

You can waste a huge amount of time doing desktop research. Nothing comes close to speaking with end users. A 10min chat with a potential customer who as a problem to solve will provide you with a much better insight than hours spent on Google.

One potential issue with this approach, is they may not wish to upset you, particularly if you’re running founder-led customer interviews. They might hate what you’re proposing, but are unwilling to kill your idea for fear of being impolite! This is where impartial moderators conducting focus groups comes into it’s own.

Getting close to your end users, whilst your proposition is still nothing more than demo screens or a concept, is critical is avoiding expensive production and time wasted going in the wrong direction.

Whether you invest in a focus group or simple 1 to 1 interviews, make it totally clear that the best thing they can provide you with is their honesty. It’s the honest, and sometimes miserable, end users that will reveal much more about your likely success than those that pay you lip service and fail to get under the skin of the product you intend to bring to market.