Stage 2 of 8 · 8 lessons · ~4 weeks

Validate before you build

Find out whether people will commit time or money before you write the product. Interviews, a one-page smoke test and pre-sales take days and give you evidence instead of hope.

Start: Questions that do not invite lies

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Do this

Write an interview script of past-behaviour questions and remove every question about your idea.
Run at least ten interviews with people who match your target customer.
Write down your pass threshold and deadline before any test goes live.
Publish a one-page smoke test with a single call to action.
Send targeted visitors from relevant communities within their rules.
Offer a pre-sale or founding-customer deal with a clear refund promise.
Decide: pass, change the customer or problem, or drop it, and write down why.

Practise

Carrd
Put an honest smoke test page live in an afternoon and change the headline as you learn

Keep handy

Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Collect waitlist emails and ask every subscriber why they signed up; free up to 10,000 subscribers

Also worth your time

How to talk to users (opens in a new tab)Read
A free, practical talk on customer conversations; the free route to the same ideas as The Mom Test
The Mom TestGo deeperPaid
The short book on interview questions that people cannot answer with polite lies

Before moving on: A validation report: notes from interviews or conversations with buyers, the reaction to at least one free piece of work, a pre-order page with its numbers, your pre-set threshold, and a written decision.

Tauseef's advice

This stage feels slow to developers because nothing gets built. It is the fastest part of the whole roadmap. Talk to people this week, put up an honest page, and ask for money early. If nobody will pre-order, better to learn it now than after three months of evenings.