Idea Validation: Market demand, Product

Video Demo

Simulate a working product through a recorded video walkthrough

Illustration of Video Demo
Run a Video Demo play

Also called: Explainer Video, Video Trailers

See also: Feature Stub

Difficulty: Easy

Requires existing audience or product

Evidence strength
35

Relevant metrics: Unique views, Number of replays, Number of shares, Comments

Validates: Desirability

How: Create the illusion of a working product and record a "real life" scenario using it. Use that video as part of your landing page or marketing message. The video is your minimum viable product that can help validate market demand.

Why: A real-life walkthrough clearly demonstrates how the product can help customers, eventually leading to why they would want to pay for it.

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!

Before the experiment

The first thing to do when planning any kind of test or experiment, is to figure out what you want to test. To make critical assumptions explicit, fill out an experiment sheet as you prepare your test. We created a sample sheet for you to get started. Download the Experiment Sheet.

Validating a problem nobody knows they have

What do you do when you want feedback from customers on what really matters when you’re solving a problem most people don’t know they have? In this case, you can’t get an answer asking an expert or polling a focus group.

When users have a hard time understanding your product or service when it is explained to them, creating a staged video demo of your future experience might the right choice. Especially when what your product will be doing different is to provide a seamless customer experience (although complicated under the surface), it can be near impossible to demonstrate the working software in prototype form in real life.

Showing a perfect and seamless run of the end experience in a video can be the answer that will persuade customers and investors.

After the experiment

To make sure you move forward, it is a good idea to systematically record your the insights you learned and what actions or decisions follow. We created a sample Learning Sheet, that will help you capture insights in the process of turning your product ideas successful. Download the Learning Sheet.

Examples

Dropbox

By demonstrating Dropbox’s intended functionality through a 3-minute explainer video, sign-ups increased from 5,000 to 75,000 overnight – in absence of a real product.

Source: How DropBox Started As A Minimal Viable Product

Airtable

Using an animated product demo video to showcase the different use cases of their product. This approach helped them attract a broad audience and provided specific information to viewers who watched the video for longer durations​​

Source: How DropBox Started As A Minimal Viable Product

Grammerly

Grammarly is known for their prolific advertising on YouTube, using video ads extensively. Their most viewed videos, which have garnered hundreds of millions of views, effectively introduce the product and showcase its features through screen captures and real-life examples.

Source: 5 Businesses That Rock at Video Marketing

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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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.

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