Pain points and validation of ideas

A startup exists to solve a problem or a pain point.

Upon coming up with the idea for a startup, the founders may choose to invest time and capital immediately into developing a product to solve a pain point. 

Alternatively, they may choose to test whether this perceived pain point actually exists before spending more time and capital in the product. This is to avoid the situation where time is spent developing a product or solution that nobody wants or where demand is weak.

The smarter option is to first establish whether the pain point is serious enough on the part of the customers.  It could be that the pain exists only to a moderate degree. A solution may be nice to have but not acutely needed. In such a scenario, the customer is able to live without a solution or make do with the alternative solutions available in the market despite these being imperfect. 

It is where the pain point is serious enough and where a good proportion of customers are willing to pay for the solution can the idea be said to be ‘validated’.

The founder can then pour in more capital and effort developing the product with good confidence that it is something the customers need. 

This concept was famously set out in various books including The Lean Startup by Eric Ries.  

One example of a process to validate an idea would be: 

·      Reach out to a sample of intended users or customers and take them through a description of the proposed product or solution. This can be done via:

o  A landing page on the web describing the solution. Advertise digitally to pull visitors to the page. Track the level of favourable response from the visitors to the page.

o  Face to face conversations with intended users – approach them in a public space, attend relevant events, etc. . Document the response and feedback from the users.

o  Reaching out to users via direct email/calls, social media or via third party agents. Track the level of favourable response and feedback.

·      Before reaching out to the users, set a benchmark for what would constitute a successful level of response.

·      If the response received achieves or exceeds this benchmark, then indications are that there is a serious enough pain point.

·      If not, listen to the feedback and change the idea accordingly. It may be that the idea can be tweaked or ‘pivoted’ to address a different but related pain point or a different customer group. Subsequently, test out the pivoted idea using the same process.

With this process, a founder is able to find out the right product or solution to focus on instead of developing something where demand is weak.