How to Validate an Idea Before Building
Validation is a sequence of increasingly expensive questions. Answer them in order and you fail cheaply.
Last updated 2026-08-17
The four questions, in order
| Question | How to answer it |
|---|---|
| Does anyone have this problem? | Complaint and review data |
| How many, and how badly? | Cross-source clustering |
| Will they pay? | Job posts, existing spend, competitor pricing |
| Will they buy from me? | Conversations, landing page, pre-sale |
The step most people skip
Question three. It is entirely possible for a problem to be real, widespread and painful, and for nobody to pay to fix it — because the pain falls on someone without a budget. Check who signs the cheque before you build.
What counts as validation
- Somebody pre-paying is validation
- Somebody saying 'I would definitely use that' is not
- Somebody currently paying a human to do it is close to validation
- Traffic on a landing page is interest, not intent