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← Part 03: Validate the idea PART 03 · VALIDATE · 30 MINUTES

Validate the idea

Present slides Full screen, one slide at a time · 6 slides
MASTERCLASS · PART 03 · VALIDATE 01

An MVP is not a smaller app

What people think an MVP is

  • Version 1 with fewer features
  • Something to launch and hope
  • Success means it got built

What an MVP really is

  • The least effort that teaches you the most
  • A test of your riskiest assumption
  • Success means you learned enough to decide

MVP: minimum viable product. Maximum validated learning for the least effort.

MASTERCLASS · PART 03 · VALIDATE 02

Four ways an idea can fail

  1. DESIRABILITYDo they want it? TutorDesk: will parents use a link instead of messaging?
  2. VIABILITYWill it pay? TutorDesk: will tutors pay a small monthly fee?
  3. FEASIBILITYCan we build it? TutorDesk: can we sync bookings with a calendar?
  4. USABILITYCan they use it? TutorDesk: can a parent reschedule on a phone in under a minute?

Most first-time founders test feasibility. Most products fail on desirability.

MASTERCLASS · PART 03 · VALIDATE 03

Turn a guess into a test

  1. WE BELIEVEthe change we will make: a booking link with self-service rescheduling
  2. FORthe specific customer: independent tutors and the parents they teach
  3. WILLthe result we expect: less time spent arranging lessons
  4. SHOWN BYthe evidence and the line: at least half of reschedules done without a message to the tutor

Write the threshold down before the test. Never move it to fit the result.

MASTERCLASS · PART 03 · VALIDATE 04

How do you know they want it?

  1. THEY SAY“I’d definitely use that.” Polite, free, and often wrong. Interviews about the past are better than questions about the future
  2. THEY DOThey click, sign up, try it or come back. Landing pages and clickable prototypes show behaviour
  3. THEY COMMITThey give time, money or reputation: a paid pilot, a deposit, an introduction to a friend

One real commitment outweighs twenty compliments.

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