Is entrepreneurship the new search for gold?

It's been a while since I've been using this comparison between startup founders and the gold hunters in the gold rush era. Might seem funny and exaggerated, but think about it for a moment.

We have a bunch of hard-working people, driven by a dream, ready and eager to go above and beyond in their mission to "find the gold nuggets".

Fortunately, we are no longer digging in the dirt and filtering river water, but the grinding to validate an idea and to transform it into a product that somehow fits into a niche in the market seems to have similar odds, especially in today's circumstances where 30.000 new product ideas are launched yearly in the market.

So, how can entrepreneurs "become luckier" in their quest to find the golden idea?

Well, idea validation definitely plays a decisive role.

Luckily, we have several validation frameworks that can help us achieve this, or at least help us become aware of an idea that has a chance to survive in today's competitive landscape.

One of my favorite frameworks is the Double Diamond process.

The above figure is a more complex one as it offers more details on what goes within each diamond, so you'll probably like this more for now:

The most important thing about it is that it provides a clear separation between phases which will allow the founders and their team to focus on a specific topic.

Things get even more interesting if founders were to consider bringing in external help, like outsourcing agencies and consultants. This would most probably create extra "noise" unless such a framework is used to clearly define the scope of work.

Startup founders are not always the subject matter experts

Everyone assumes that when founders set up to launch a startup, they would be the subject matter experts, which many times is not true, as most tech startups are initiated by tech people, with no business background. So, the first thing you should consider validating is domain expertise. Who in the team has this knowledge or would assume responsibility for it.

Once you have that step out of the way, you should consider ways of extracting data from the market within the Research phase and extracting the Insight from that research which should result in identifying the so-called "Specific problem".

Things get funkier when a problem is found as the team can start brainstorming about ways to solve it. Design thinking might be a great way to consider the ideation, but don't be fooled about the hype that is created around this phase. Nothing is yet validated and practically has no intrinsic value.

If it’s fake it doesn’t mean it’s unrealistic

So here comes the interesting part, where the team starts building a prototype to get the idea to life. Practically founders and surrounding teams act like mad scientists in a laboratory trying to patch together a working prototype. Usually not a good-looking one, but enough to help them prove their idea to solve a specific issue is worth pursuing.

A well-done prototype can often be enough to validate the users’ expectations, interactions, and needs. When Răzvan Bretoiu joined the fast validation idea with his project, Serverly, he seemed highly skeptical. In the end, he was amazed by how the developers within the users testing group thought they were in front of a real live product. It worked spectacularly and gave him the necessary insight to validate his product and to improve its ‘package’. Now he and Greg can prepare to approach the market with more confidence. 

The fear of missed opportunity and investment can be counterbalanced via a 5-day validation session. If you got your idea ready, submit your application and win a free session. Futureproof your idea and get ready to make it happen.  

Building a new product and going to market can be challenging, time-consuming, and needs investment. Through such a journey we prepare to make fast decisions and manage risk. Building and launching several products has taught us the relevance of validation ahead of making any major investment. Gathering feedback from the market and users can save effort, resources, and money. Submit your idea application here and win your 5-day validation idea. Bring your idea to the market now.