4. Market Validation: Meaning and Outcomes
Many start-ups see their creation and destruction in the same year. There
are many reasons why products fail. However, the most important reason is
lack of market validation.
Market validation refers to the process of validating your Product and
Service by your target audience before it is put on the market.
Does your target audience like your product?
Is your target market ready to pay for or buy your product?
You can determine if your idea is feasible by conducting market validation.
The possible outcomes are as follows:
5.
6. Product Development Life-cycle
Learn from data analysis
whether to pivot or
persevere
Build small and simple
tests to collect metrics
Measure test results
7. Importance of Market Validation
Get to know your market better.
Avoid huge failures.
Identify your business model.
Secure and justify product funding
Market validation is important because it allows you to-
10. 6 Steps to Product-Market Fit :
Identify your target
market/customer
1.
2.Identify underserved customer needs
3. Value Proposition
4. Feature Set
5.User Experience
6. Testing
11. Methods of Market Validation
Primary and Secondary Research
Prototype Testing
MVP
A/B Test "a simple randomized controlled experiment, in which
two samples (A and B) of a single vector-variable are compared"
There are many market validation methods available, each with its
own benefits and drawbacks. Important to use the correct methods.
Often, this means using multiple methods to gain a better
understanding of the market.
12. We can quickly validate our idea in the market. A simple
Google search can be used to find out if others are talking
about your idea.
For example, check the search volume for a keyword on
websites like SEMrush if you are looking to develop a mobile
feature that is accessible to blind people.
Search Engine Research:
13. Prototype Testing
Test users can provide valuable information on how your
product works and doesn't work.
This means that people no longer have to think up an idea
or product.
They can actually use the product and relate to it beyond
the test.
14. MVP
Minimum viable product (MVP), is the simplest possible
version of your product that can provide value to customers.
The MVPs are often used in market validation tests to gauge
users' interest and how they might interact with the
product.
It is worth investing in a fully-fledged product if users
continue to use the MVP. This allows you to get feedback
from your target audience and pinpoint any issues they have
with the product.
16. A/B Testing is one the most widely used market validation
methods. It is a widely used product management tool to
prioritize and user research.
You can use A/B testing to test which version of your idea is
most popular and gauge which one gets the best reception.
Consider, for example, that you have more subscribers using
the premium model rather than the pay per-use model. This
can be used to help you develop your product-marketing
strategy.
A/B Testing
18. Hypothesis-driven product management is the practice of
treating the development of new products as a series of
experiments. Instead of formulating requirements, we
formulate hypotheses along with some validation criteria that
state how strong of a signal we need to consider the hypothesis
to be true. We use what we learn from each experiment to
iterate on our ideas until we get where we want to go, or until
we determine that the product isn’t viable and cancel the effort.
Hypothesis Driven Mgmt
19. The hypothesis is a falsifiable version of our assumption. Remember to make
sure you’re only testing one variable in each hypothesis; otherwise, you won’t
get reliable data.
The test is how we intend to validate our hypothesis, proving it to be true or
false.
The validation criteria is the evidence we need to consider the hypothesis
true.
A lean experiment is the smallest experiment we can run to quickly test our
assumption. We start small and fast and then increase the scale and scope of our
experiments over time. An experiment consists of three parts:
Designing Experiments
20. Hypothesis:
We believe that <this capability> will result in <this outcome>.
Test:
We’ll do/make <this test>.
Validation criteria:
We’ll know that our hypothesis is valid if we observe/measure <this outcome>.
Experiment template
22. The product vision is your true north
The product vision states what the product could ultimately become in support of your
company’s overarching purpose. It reflects the core values, motivations, and intentions of a
team or company. It’s often referred to as a team’s “true north,” in that it defines
the product’s direction and guides the team’s every decision and action.
Strategy
The product strategy explains HOW we’ll realize our product vision.
Tying it back to Product Vision
23. Goals change throughout the product lifecycle
Objectives make goals more achievable
Clear goals and objectives help minimize waste and maximize value
Metrics enable us to track progress
To know whether we’re on the right track to deliver on our product goals, we need to
establish clear objectives and metrics.
Track against Objectives
24. KPI: Increase site availability measured over the last month from 97.5 percent to
99.5 percent <<Your experiments should relate to this KPI>>
Example: Online retailer
• Goal: Improve customers’ satisfaction with our site experience
• Objective: Improve site performance
Example: Online media property
• Goal: Improve profitability
• Objective: Increase banner ad revenue
• KPI 1: Visitor loyalty (average number of returning visits per month) <<Your
experiments should relate to this KPI>>
• KPI 2: Clickthroughs (average number of banner ad clicks, per user, per month) <<Your
experiments should relate to this KPI>>
Examples
26. Scalability
Scalability is all about capability and capacity.
Scaling a company means setting up the conditions for
growth. This means being able to grow without being
hindered.
Scaling requires planning, funding, the right systems,
people, processes, technology and partners.
The process of acquiring the right capacity for meeting the
increasing need for the product in the market is called
scaling up.
29. Your growth strategy will involve different aspects of your business. You will need to
add to your team and build systems to support your increased volume of business.
Startups selling B2B
1.
Startups who sell products or services online need to focus on which expenditures (e.g.,
social media, SEO, Google AdWords) lead to more customers, and then spend and scale
accordingly when they have the resources.
2. Startups selling Online
Scaling your startup:
Having an effective growth strategy
30. Ascertain that your core product line achieves “market fit.” You can
iteratively modify your product based on customer input and data.
Determine your primary users
Determine which marketing channels offer the highest return on
investment and the greatest potential for scalability by conducting
first tests with modest expenditures
Ascertain that you have the resources necessary to scale. If required,
seek extra money. Profitability is irrelevant when scaling, and the last
thing you want is to run out of money.
Prepare an effective Growth strategy
31. What is your competitive space and how do you compare with alternatives?
Are you creating a new product or service category that must be explained and evangelized
to your market?
What do your different types of customers each want most from your product or service?
What’s the difference between your best customers and your worst customers?
Where is the market going and what trends will affect your business?
What is your current situation in the business?
Where does your business need to be in one year and three years for you to consider it
successful?
The Scaling Point process includes important questions that go beyond product-market fit:
The Scaling Point Process
32. The goal of product-market
validation is to meld the market
characteristics (your target
demographic and their underserved
needs) together with the product
characteristics (value proposition,
features, and user experience)
33. It's not clear if a specific product feature will be feasible to offer. It is important
to determine if offering a cancellation option for bookings will increase
customer retention and gain.
Your first step is to create your hypothesis. Consider this: "Free cancellations
result higher customer conversions."
Next, design two ads for each campaign. You can choose one that offers
cancellation free of charge or another that does not.
This can be done on a targeted audience network.
Assume that you have a travel agency called as TravelGo.
Google and Facebook analytics can be used to determine which ads had the highest
click through rate. This will allow you to decide whether or not to add the feature.
Example of Market Validation
34. It is best to start as soon as possible after you have an
idea.
Before you hire a new team, relaunch or redevelop a
product or service that is already in production.
The experts suggest the following:
When to implement?