The problem might exist, but does your product actually solve the problem? There’s only one way to find out: to get your hands dirty and start experimenting.
Start validating your product by finding the cheapest and quickest possible way you can emulate either part of- or a full product experience.
At this stage, the “product” does not have to scale. In fact: build something that does not scale. Don’t spend your time on building integrations that you might need later: fake it with manual labor. In this way, it is much easier to pivot and change directions if your users didn’t respond favorably to your product.
Can you build a testable (not launchable) product without writing a single line of code?
Split test versions of the same design to test which performs better
Release a feature-complete product, but with known or unknown bugs
Lay out multiple screens and allow users to navigate between them
Personally deliver your service to test product satisfaction
Listen in on customer service to understand user problems firsthand
Crunch and combine data to discover trends in market and user behavior
Examine what users will click on first to complete an intended task.
Test what users recall after just brief exposure
Ask a group of selected participants about their opinions and preferences
Conduct brief user tests in the wild with complete strangers
Serve a competing product to your customers as if it was your own
Quickly assemble and tweak a rough model of a physical product
Assemble a product by piecing together third-party products
Set up short and timely in-app surveys in context of the studied feature
A product with just enough functionality to be viable to launch
Iterate your product with customers on-site
Test which combination of components performs better
Ask how likely your customers are to recommend your product to others
Create a teaser for your full product experience
Probe demand with a temporary working solution
Rapidly sketch and lay out interaction design concepts on paper
Create a fake artifact as a proxy for a real product
Borrow or rent what's needed to test your product before investing in it
Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer use a product
Run a test on a very small sample before launching world-wide
Conduct many unmoderated tests fast and in parallel
A reduced product solving one specific problem for one specific niche
Build one or more one-page sites that advertise your (fictional) product
Remove or disable a feature to see if it is valued
Use the product or prototype you are designing
Simulate a working product through a recorded video walkthrough
Use human power to fake automation of complex tasks
Build just enough of a feature to test its intended behavior
Use pre-defined questions to discover alignments and trade-offs
Product Loop provides an opportunity for Product professionals and their peers to exchange ideas and experiences about Product Design, Development and Management, Business Modelling, Metrics, User Experience and all the other things that get us excited.
Join our communityMade with in Copenhagen, Denmark
Want to learn more about about good product development, then browse our product playbooks.