{"id":15659,"date":"2017-04-13T17:25:31","date_gmt":"2017-04-13T17:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?p=15659"},"modified":"2019-06-17T04:27:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T04:27:14","slug":"product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Validation &#8212; Identifying Customer &#038; Problems Before Looking at Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rather than creating Product Requirement Documents in a vacuum, modern Product Managers are employing an iterative approach to Product Validation by identifying customer segments, finding problems and then assessing solutions. These new processes have largely come from the startup world, but can just as easily be applied in bigger organizations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>5 steps to validate your product idea without a product. <\/strong>Fans of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startuplessonslearned.com\/2008\/11\/what-is-customer-development.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Customer Development<\/a> will be familiar with these two key steps to building a product that people want; validating a customer\/problem hypothesis and then validating a problem\/solution hypothesis. Shardul Mehta <a href=\"https:\/\/streetsmartproductmanager.com\/product-validation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underlines how important it is<\/a> to first test to see if there is a significant customer segment experiencing a specific problem. Only then should you explore solutions that might solve it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Validating product ideas through lean user research. <\/strong>Lean, iterative Product Validation usually involves using Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). Being a relatively new concept, there are several definitions for an MVP, such as the one Tomer Sharon quotes; it\u00a0is the process of creating \u201ca version of a new product that allows the team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least amount of effort.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uxmatters.com\/mt\/archives\/2016\/02\/validating-product-ideas-through-lean-user-research.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">He goes on to give two examples<\/a>, 1) the Concierge MVP where the company manually executes the core service before automating it, and 2) the Fake Doors MVP where marketing materials are used to sell the product before it&#8217;s even built.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Validating product ideas.<\/strong> Iterating on an MVP is not without its critics. <a href=\"https:\/\/alistapart.com\/article\/validating-product-ideas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tomer Sharon reminds us in another article<\/a>\u00a0that being hung up on a cycle of validating product ideas will distract you from understanding the fundamental problem that you are trying to solve. A great question to continually ask yourself is, &#8220;how do people currently solve the problem&#8221;. Then you can use several observational techniques to find the answers, such as field observations, shadowing, and contextual inquiry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rather than creating Product Requirement Documents in a vacuum, modern Product Managers are employing an iterative approach to Product Validation by identifying customer segments, finding problems and then assessing solutions. These new processes have largely come from the startup world, but can just as easily be applied in bigger organizations. 5 steps to validate your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Product Validation - Identifying Customer &amp; Problems Before Looking at Solutions - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Product Validation - Identifying Customer &amp; Problems Before Looking at Solutions - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rather than creating Product Requirement Documents in a vacuum, modern Product Managers are employing an iterative approach to Product Validation by identifying customer segments, finding problems and then assessing solutions. These new processes have largely come from the startup world, but can just as easily be applied in bigger organizations. 5 steps to validate your [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/productcollective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-13T17:25:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-17T04:27:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Brief-Image-Template1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul McAvinchey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul McAvinchey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/\",\"name\":\"Product Validation - Identifying Customer & Problems Before Looking at Solutions - Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Brief-Image-Template1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-13T17:25:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-17T04:27:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Brief-Image-Template1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Brief-Image-Template1.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/product-validation-finding-customers-problems-and-then-solutions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Product Validation &#8212; Identifying Customer &#038; Problems Before Looking at Solutions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/\",\"name\":\"Product Collective | Organizers of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference\",\"description\":\"For people who build, launch and scale world-class software products.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f34ceda9eb6237e864633ca033061c0b\",\"name\":\"Paul McAvinchey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/PLnHr3Hu_400x400-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Paul McAvinchey\"},\"description\":\"For over 20 years, Paul has been building and collaborating on digital products with fast-growing startups and global brands, including AOL and WMS Gaming. Currently, he's a co-founder of Product Collective, a worldwide community of product people. Members collaborate on in the exclusive Member Hub, meet at INDUSTRY: The Product Conference, listen to Rocketship.fm, learn at Product Interviews and get a weekly newsletters that includes best practices in product management. 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In recent years he led business development at DXY, a leading product design firm in the Midwest, and product innovation at MedCity Media, a publishing startup acquired by Breaking Media in 2015.","sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/yaboya"],"url":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/author\/newindsum\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/productcollective.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}