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VALIDATION
20 WAYS TO TEST YOUR BUSINESS IDEAS
say hi —> hello@boardofinnova@on.com
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Through experimenta@on and
Time
valida@on, you move away from
Release and the standard innova@on approach
validate!
used in corporates (read: build the
car, launch it on the market)…
Waterfall approach
High risk
Valida@on of the business proposi@on at release
Limited itera@ons
Budget-consuming
Valida@on of the whole concept at final release
Risk / $
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… towards a lean, resource op@mised ex ex
Time
approach, where evidence from user-
tes@ng de-risks decision making. Release and Release and Release and Release and
validate! validate! validate! validate!
Lean approach
Low risk
Mul@ple checkpoints for valida@on
Mul@ple itera@ons
Budget is progressively increased once hypothesis are validated
Valida@on of individual hypothesis through mul@ple experiments
Risk / $ Risk / $
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Release and Release and Release and Release and Release and
validate! validate! validate! validate! validate!
Problems: at the very Solu7ons: Does your Features: test core Business Model: test Pricing: test the pricing
beginning of your offer solve this need features that are crucial the viability of the model of your product
innova@on path, you’ll and is the customer for adding value to your solu@on you designed.
or service.
need to test whether a willing to pay?
solu@on.
problem you iden@fied
Example: would energy Example: should you
is a problem worth Example: is a lamp with Example: should the providers be interested pay for the lamp (299€)
solving for your movement detector lamp be this bright? in partnering in selling or for the energy
customer.
what people are looking these energy-saving package that includes
for? lamps? lamps and energy?
Example: do people
really need bu]on-free
ligh@ng systems for
their homes?
Step 2
Map out your assump@ons,
priori@ze the most cri@cal ones
and convert them into
hypothesis ready to be tested
Mapping out the assump7ons
Cri7cal assump7ons
Very important!
Not-so-cri7cal
assump7ons
Probably not really Corporate fit
important Desirability Viability Feasibility Strategy
Client/user focus Business Model Tech constraints
Mapping out the assump7ons
Step 1 Step 3
Download this PDF and print it on Use 3 vo@ng dots per person to
an A2 sheet of paper. You can also vote the most cri@cal assump@ons.
draw the graph on a flipchart if you Then, select the ones which
can't print. received the most votes. Are these
allocated mainly in the upper
Step 2 sec@on of the graph?
Write down on post-its the
assump@ons of the business Step 4
proposi@on you have in mind. Having priori@zed the most cri@cal
Examples of assump@ons for assump@ons, you can now start
Airbnb in its early days could have valida@ng the most relevant ones
been: guests are not afraid of (aka. the ones that relate to
sleeping in the house of strangers, desirability and viability, and which
hosts are not afraid of damages in are easy to answer) - leaving the
their proper@es, and so on. least important ones for later (life it
too short to waste @me in
irrelevant ac@vi@es).
download the PDF
Conver7ng assump7ons into hypotheses
Assump@on Hypothesis
Anything accepted as true without A hypothesis, in contrast, is a simple,
evidence to back it up. An assump@on is a educated guess for what you expect to
statement that we believe to be true. happen in a given experiment. Hypotheses
should include a cause and effect “if…
then…” statement plus a numeric,
measurable target. It is important to clearly
define your hypotheses with metrics that
are able to guide ac@ons.
Step 3
Choose and design the relevant
experiments to test your
hypotheses
A one-page overview of your experiment
No problem - we listed here 20 experiments you can use, plus real examples of
how successful startups or corporates used them for valida@on purposes
How to pick the right experiment
Tools
Some ready-to-use
services you will find
helpful to get your
experimenta@on started
Currency
These are the metrics you’ll need to measure in
order to validate (or reject) your hypothesis.
These results will reflect the interest/
commitment of your addressed market.
Kind of experiment
Evalua7ve: the experiment
helps you evaluate a measurable
hypothesis
Genera7ve: the experiment
helps you gather addi@onal
insights and signals
Hypothesis: which
sensors should a smart-
bed have?
Haelvoet has been an authority in the
produc@on of hospital and nursing home
furniture for more than 80 years. Due to
ageing popula@on, Haelvoet wants to get a
clear view on the essen@als sensors needed Test carried out by Results
in a smart-bed. They used card sor@ng to Haelvoet, producers of The exercise of sor@ng cards
priori@ze the essen@al sensors in in-depth hospital and nursing home during the in-depth
interviews with nurses, care providers and furniture. interviews indicated that the
following three sensors are
purchasing managers.
Metric perceived as being the most
The ranking of desired desired: out-of-bed detec@on,
features scales and automa@c under-
bed light.
Not only
Valida7on.
explore our tools
At www.boardofinnova@on.com/tools
you’ll find a world of free tools, guides
and other resources for the innovators.
2 Picnic in the graveyard
Metric
resurrect the promise of Tackling the points of pain Google
Glasses faced.
the Google Glasses?
Results
Vuzix, similarly to other players in the
Vuzix, an American mul@na@onal technology
same AR arena, is overcoming the
firm headquartered in Rockester, New York, flaws of Google Glasses by offering a
has been trying to resurrect the promise of different design and larger display.
the Google Glasses for years. Vuzix is a Other compe@tors are specialising into
supplier of wearable display technology, specific use cases (cycling glasses,
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. sport glasses, game plauorms, …).
Key Takeaway
Keep in mind the principle “either it
already exists, or someone tried
already and failed”. Before launching
your whole self into the development
of a new product or service, look at
your neighbors first, to prevent
yourself from making the same
mistakes.
3 Customer interview
Hypothesis: is there a
demand for social-
media-management
solu@ons?
Buffer is an intui@ve Social Media
management plauorm which is today trusted
by brands, businesses, agencies and
individuals to help manage Social Media. Test carried out by Results Key Takeaway
Before developing the actual service, and Buffer, a Social Media The volume of traffic on the If you have an idea, don’t
wri@ng any line of code, the Buffer founders management tool. landing page gave the immediately start building it
wondered if people would have actually founders valida@on for the but try to inves@gate the
desired the product. To test it, they created a Metric solu@on they had in mind. market interest using a
The clicks on the product Addi@onally, they captured a prototype, a MVP or a landing
simple landing page, pitched their product
page and pricing page gave list of contacts of high-value page for the product, AS IF it
and measured interest - as simple as that.
the founders an indica@on of poten@al clients. already existed.
the actual interest in the
product and in the different
pricing models.
5 Genera7ve session
Hypothesis: what
factors play a role in the
process of choosing an
educa@onal program?
The University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht
planned to redesign their website. Relevant
user insights were needed in order to make
the website play a role in the process of
choosing an educa@onal program. Test carried out by Results Key Takeaway
The University of Applied By proving the par@cipants Look beyond first impressions
Sciences in Utrecht. with a set of hands-on and get a deep understanding
exercises, they were able to of what your users know, feel
Metric get insight into their decision and dream.
Map all kinds of latent needs making process. Insights that
and desires of the people who would later served as the
are planning to par@cipate in founda@on for the redesign.
an educa@onal program in the
near future.
6 Single-feature MVP
Amer making sure that users understand your value proposi@on with a
comprehension test, landing pages can be used as stand-alone single pages
where you display your value proposi@on and aim to convert to a sign up via
email or a sale. Start from a hypothesis, clarify your key metric and use your
call to ac@on to test user interest in your value proposi@on.
Hypothesis: is there
demand for Dropbox?
In 2009, a rela@vely unknown startup called
Dropbox launched this explainer video.
Shortly amer the video was launched, this
two-minute explainer was placed on the
dropbox.com homepage, where it was
viewed about 30,000 @mes per day.
Hypothesis: do
customers understand
our value proposi@on?
Metric
The amount of money raised.
Results
Pebble raised $20.3 million from
over 75.000 backers, breaking
records on the Kickstarter site.
The first million$ was raised
within 29 minutes!
14 Pre-sales
Perfect to test
Cons
+ Difficult to scale Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
+ Time consuming
Pre-sales Example
Launch a pre-order
page before kicking
off produc@on.
Test carried out by
Oculus VR, the American VR technology Oculus VR
company, omen launches pre-order pages
for its products before kicking off Metric
produc@on. While preordering you The number of pre-orders
exactly know how much the product registered.
costs and on which date it will be
shipped. They offered pre-orders for Key Takeaway
Oculus Rim, Oculus Touch, Oculus Go, Pre-orders allow for:
etc. Clearer es@ma@on of real
demand
Be]er es@ma@on of
produc@on targets
Cash-in
Marke@ng advantages -
sense of community and
exclusivity for the early
adopters
15 Concierge
Pros Cons
+ simplicity + weak valida@on
+ speed + non-binding Target audience Kind
+ straight-forward
B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ explanatory Currency
Signature
Perfect to test
Time
Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
18 A/B Tes7ng
Create a clickable/“tappable”
prototype of an App or a
digital service
App mockup