Validation

Test ideas before you invest—validate early. Save big and build only what resonates deeply with users.

Validate: finding the right solution

After discovery, you will likely have a clear understanding of the problems to solve, but there may be multiple potential solutions. Validation is the process of collecting data to determine which solution is the best to move forward with. This ensures you invest your resources wisely and build features that truly address customer needs.

In the past, teams often relied on gut feel or leadership feedback for decisions. Now, with in-app prompts, surveys, and testing, we can easily pressure-test ideas with real customers. Validation helps prioritize efforts, ensures you're solving the right problems, and manages stakeholder expectations effectively.

Why validation is important

Helps prioritize which solutions to build
Ensures teams invest resources in the right areas
Helps manage stakeholder expectations with data-driven decisions

Key questions validation answers

What should we work on first, and why?
Is the problem worth solving?
Is the proposed solution viable?
Which outcomes resonate most with customers?
How can we best address our customers' pain points?
What don't we know about customer workflows that may influence the solution?
How do we curate a diverse set of customers for interviews?
What pain points are significant enough that customers would pay for a solution?

How to prioritize problems and validate solutions

Types of experimentation and testing

Product usage
- Analyze data from a product analytics tool to understand how users engage with your product.
In-app surveys or polls
- Gather real-time user feedback at scale. Use in-app guides to expose users to design prototypes and gauge their preferences.
Market research and interviews
- Conduct interviews, particularly useful when building a new product rather than adding features to an existing one.
Willingness to pay (WTP) surveys
- Assess price sensitivity through surveys that indirectly measure buyers' willingness to pay (wtp).
Feedback management platform
- Use tools where users can submit and upvote ideas, offering a real-time resource on demand for product features.

The role of experimentation and testing

Evaluative testing

This type of testing happens early in the process, before building anything. It can include:

Prototype usability testing: Gauge user interaction with a prototype to identify potential issues before development.
Fake door tests: Invite customers to use a feature that doesn't yet exist, to measure interest before committing resources.

Live experimentation

This occurs after you've built something and are ready to test it with users. It includes:

A/B testing: Release two versions of a feature to see which performs better.
Beta testing: Release functionality to a small subset of users to gather feedback before scaling.