Your concept of "Idea Validation" is probably wrong 🔍

Hey friends!

I want to talk about IDEA VALIDATION today.

In the past few months, during my calls and work with entrepreneurs, the following pattern caught my eye:

Most entrepreneurs think "Idea Validation" is about proving they are RIGHT about their business idea.

❌ Here's why that is the wrong approach ↓

DO YOU AGREE WITH THE FOLLOWING?

• The amount of ideas is infinite.

• Each idea is a combination of assumptions.

• Therefore you are probably wrong about your idea in some way.

If you agree that this is your starting point, then you will understand that idea validation is about figuring out how wrong you are.

The less wrong you are, the more merit your idea has, and the more it is validated.

When you have an idea you find interesting enough to investigate, you basically give yourself the assignment to prove yourself wrong.

You have to go out into the world and set yourself up for rejection.

That is something that most people rather avoid.

And that is why they fall into the trap of trying to prove they are right.

😩 They ignore negative feedback.

😨 They start building a product without any qualitative insights.

🫢 They start spending money to acquire customers before they actually understand WHO that customer is.

They set themselves up for failure in a way bigger way because they didn't want to fail (and be rejected) in the shorter term, with probably a much smaller investment of their time, money, and energy.

So when you have an idea, do this instead ↓

1️⃣ Assume and understand that the assumptions (about Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability) that make up your idea are probably wrong in some way.

2️⃣ Determine which assumptions are the most important to learn more about. Usually, the assumptions about Desirability are most important.

3️⃣ Define actions that can help you gather information (data) to determine if these assumptions are correct or wrong.

Save time, money, and energy by approaching this in an iterative way to perhaps experience a small rejection instead of setting yourself up for a bigger failure.

Let me know if this resonates and if you experienced this yourself? I’m eager to learn more about how I can mitigate this possible trap for more people.

Thanks and high five from the internet,

Bram Kanstein (@bramk)
I help entrepreneurs de-risk startup ideas and grow from 0 → 1 ⚡️

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