The most common way a SaaS product fails isn't bad code. It's building something nobody wants badly enough to pay for. Validation is the cheap way to find out before you spend months building. It's never certain, but a few weeks of the right work can save a year.

Step 1: Write down your assumptions

Before talking to anyone, write down:

  • Who has the problem (be specific)
  • What the problem is, and how often it happens
  • How they solve it today, and what that costs them in time or money
  • Why your solution would be meaningfully better

Each of these is a guess. Validation tests them one by one.

Step 2: Problem interviews

Talk to 10–20 people in your target audience. Don't pitch your idea. Ask about their past behavior, which is more honest than predictions:

  • "Tell me about the last time you dealt with [problem]."
  • "What did you do about it?"
  • "What have you tried? What did that cost?"
  • "What's the hardest part?"

Avoid "Would you use a tool that…?" Almost everyone says yes to be polite. Rob Fitzpatrick's The Mom Test is the classic book on asking questions people can't lie to you about.

Strong signals: they already spend money or significant time on the problem, they've built hacky workarounds (spreadsheets, scripts, interns), and they ask when they can use your solution.

Weak signals: "That's a cool idea," "I'd probably use that," and compliments in general.

Step 3: Look for existing demand

  • Competitors are good news. They prove people pay to solve the problem. Read their reviews on G2, Capterra, and Reddit. The complaints are your opportunity.
  • Search volume. Use a keyword tool to see whether people search for the problem or for existing solutions.
  • Communities. Are people asking about this problem regularly in forums and subreddits?

Step 4: Landing page test

Build a one-page site that describes the solution and its price, with a call to action: "Join the waitlist" or, better, "Pre-order." Drive a few hundred targeted visitors to it through the communities you found, or a small ad budget.

A waitlist signup rate above 10–15% from targeted traffic is encouraging. Clicks on a "Buy" button, even if they lead to "coming soon", are stronger evidence than waitlist signups.

Step 5: Pre-sell

The strongest validation is money. Offer early access at a discount, a founding-member lifetime deal, or a paid pilot to the people from your interviews. Three to ten people paying before the product exists is a very strong signal. Zero after real effort is also an answer, and a cheap one.

Step 6: Build the smallest useful version

Build only what solves the core problem for your first paying users. Do some of it manually behind the scenes if you can (a "concierge MVP"). Launch to your pre-sale customers and waitlist, then iterate.

When to move on

If after 20+ conversations nobody describes the problem as painful, nobody has tried to solve it, and no one will pre-pay, move on. Reframing for a different audience is fine too. Killing an idea after three weeks is a win compared with killing it after a year.

After validation

Once people are paying, the game changes to finding your first 100 customers and pricing well. And don't forget to share the journey. Your validation story makes a great first post when you build in public.