Idea Validation: Problem

Blog

Blog publicly about what you're doing

Illustration of Blog
Run a Blog play

How: Set up a blog to share the story of your product and the problem you are trying to solve and engage with users as they comment and share your content.

Why: The two-way communication from blogs gives an ideal platform to build momentum and gather customer feedback while building your minimum viable product. If you are able to create a following around your problem, you can consider it validated.

Building a community around your product

The personal storytelling format of a blog provide potential customers a better insight into what it is you do and what the underlying vision and story around your product is all about. A blog can be a great way to build a community and a following around your mission and the product that you are building.

Several startups started as a blog: Mattermark, GroupOn, and App.net – focusing on gaining initial proof of concept through rising readership until finally switching to being a real product.

Popular tools

The tools below will help you with the Blog play.

  • Medium

    A popular and free blogging platform with a great editor and great visual feel

  • WordPress

    WordPress offers free hosting of the open-source blogging platform.

Blog examples

App.net

App.net began in concept on its founders’ blog where ideas and challenges were frequently explained. In thsi way, they slowly gained support from a community of followers and supporters.

Source: 15 ways to test your minimum viable product

Mattermark

Lead enrichment software, Mattermark, started as a Blog MVP, analysing how startup companies had ventured after receiving capital.

Source: Five Successful Startups That Started As Blogs

Groupon

The first version of the daily deal site was built upon a branded WordPress blog, posting offers for gift certificates and vouchers every day manually. Using off-the-shelf software, they scripted auto-generated PDF coupons and email sendouts via Apple Mail.

Source: Five Successful Startups That Started As Blogs

This experiment is part of the Validation Patterns printed card deck

A collection of 60 product experiments that will validate your idea in a matter of days, not months. They are regularly used by product builders at companies like Google, Facebook, Dropbox, and Amazon.

Get your deck!

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