Practical Tips for Validating a Product Idea

If you’ve come up with a brilliant idea you just know the whole world will throw money at, what’s the point in validating your idea before pushing it through to production? First, not everyone may think your idea is as brilliant as you do. Secondly, there are numerous factors to consider before you invest your money into creating a product. So what’s the next step? What are the practical ways for validating a product idea before launching it?

Brush Up on What Your Competition is Doing

No matter how unique your product idea is, there is undoubtedly either someone offering the same thing already or a business that provides a similar product. Analyze your competition to see how the market is responding to their offering. Find out how your potential customers currently satisfy the needs you are planning to fulfill.

Analyze Social Chatter

What are people saying about the product your competition released? Alternatively, what are people within your niche talking about altogether? Use tools like Keyhole, Tweetreach, or Twitonomy to search hashtags and their corresponding information to get inside your ideal market. If you like what you see or determine that your product will do well within the niche, then move forward.

Create a Prototype, a Sample or an MVP

If you’re building software or even an electronic product, it’s an excellent idea to offer it on a smaller level before launching it full-scale. Allowing people to actually try out your idea before you go full swing gives you greater insight into how they will react and whether or not your product is worth investing in. This is also often called a minimum viable product (MVP). A rough prototype of your product may provide you with much more valuable feedback than just images or drawings of your concept.

Consider Launching a Kickstarter Campaign

Crowdfunding is one of the best ways to see if people will actually pay for your product. If your campaign is a success, you will have an automatic marketing community to tap into and sell your product to. If it isn’t a success than you might want to take things back to the drawing board.

Team Up With Professionals

Give your idea a shot, but don’t jump the gun. Instead, consider these helpful tips before taking things to the next level. Whenever you feel you may use some help of product development specialists please feel free to contact our experts at any stage of product development. LA NPDT can also help you with validating a product idea.