Idea Validation: Problem

Blog

Blog publicly about what you're doing

Illustration of Blog
Run a Blog play

Also called: Web-log

See also: Event

Difficulty: Easy

Evidence strength
35

Relevant metrics: Awareness, Reach, Unique views, Time spent, Comments, Number of social shares

Validates: Desirability

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.

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!

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.

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!

Related plays

Want to learn more?

Receive a hand picked list of the best reads on building products that matter every week. Curated by Anders Toxboe. Published every Tuesday.

No spam! Unsubscribe with a single click at any time.

Ice Breakers

Relieve initial group awkwardness and establish a safe space

Educate

Broaden knowledge or insight regarding the behavior or situation to inform decisions.

Demonstrate

Show practical examples or models of the desired behavior for clear guidance.

Alert

Highlight current actions and their reasons, bringing unconscious habits to awareness.

Train

Develop necessary skills and competencies to enable effective action.

Community events
Product Loop

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 community

Made with in Copenhagen, Denmark

Want to learn more about about good product development, then browse our product playbooks.