What's the best Way to do product validation on a concept phase product?

[bbar97]

So I'm a college student who is always thinking of ideas for products and services to build a business around, and there is one that i've been thinking more and more about because unlike some of the others I haven't found any big problems with it yet. I can't say exactly what it is because I don't have a patent but basically it is a way to easily keep potted plants warm in the winter.

My question is, what would be the best way to do product validation to find out if there would be significant customer demand for my product? I know asking friends and family is the cheapest and easiest way but I've heard that if you do that you'll just hear what you want to hear and nobody will say its a bad idea. (Probably heard that from shark tank) Are there any low to no cost ways to do this without revealing the specifications of my product to the people I'm gathering my data from?

Thanks guys!

 

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[Deleted50669]

Good question. It will depend a lot on your product. I don’t have very much entrepreneurial experience myself, but I will tell you that I validated the need for the website I’m building by going straight to the horse’s mouth; straight up asking “would you value this? Why? Why not? How could the idea be improved?” to people in my target market. I’m confident I’m designing for a problem that isn’t imaginary now (which is nice, because web design is proving to be a headache, and knowing the work I’m investing will be the means to a real end carries me through the suck).

Good luck


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[Deleted50669]

Side note, pick up a copy of Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank. Directly addresses your question in great detail.


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