You find out by doing the research in the cheapest order: read what people already say online about the problem, then talk to a handful of them. Both are free. Together they take about a week, and they answer the question before you have spent anything on design, development or tools.

The money you are trying not to waste is not just money. People go to an agency, or hire a university student to build something, without having done the research. It is a waste of their money, it can be a waste of their time, and it is a frustrating experience.

Step one: read before you ask, and give it two days

Go to where your people already talk. Reddit, forums, Facebook groups, app store reviews, YouTube comments. You are looking for people describing the problem in their own words, what they have tried, and what they are putting up with.

Give it about two days. Sometimes in two days you discover you hit the nail on the head, and sometimes you discover the opposite, but either way you did not waste weeks.

Read what they say about the products in that space as well, not only about the problem. Sometimes there is a gap because there is no market there, and this is the step where you find that out.

Right now is the cheapest moment you will ever have to save yourself money and time, before you build a product nobody wants or one built on assumptions that are wrong. This step and the competitive step after it are where you can stop or turn, and they are the two that save thousands of dollars and months of wasted time.

Step two: talk to five to seven people

Free, and worth more than everything else combined.

Recruit with the problem, not with your idea. Ask about the last time it happened rather than what they usually do. Let them tell you the story instead of asking them what they want. After about five people of the same kind, you will hear the same problems repeating, and that repetition is your answer.

Two things that cost money and are worth knowing about: you never give people cash for an interview, but a ten or twenty dollar gift card as a thank you is normal. And surveys look cheaper than interviews but they are not better. It is harder to get enough people to fill out a survey for it to be useful, you cannot probe, and you tend to get aspirational answers rather than truthful ones.

Don't use friends and family as your research

Interview them if they fit, but do not lean on them. They want to be supportive, and they might not feel comfortable telling you something that makes them look bad.

Eight people nodding along is encouragement. It is not validation.

What tells you the idea is good

• The same problem, described by people who do not know each other
• Workarounds they have already built, which is the strongest sign that something hurts
• Frequency and severity: how often it happens, and how bad it is when it does
• What people do, rather than what they say they would love to do

If you describe a solution and ask whether it would help, people will often say yes. Take that with a grain of salt.

What if it doesn't hold up?

Then you found out in a week, for nothing. I had a student whose idea was disproven during the research week, and I was so happy it happened in class, because they saved themselves months of time, stress, and the money they would have spent on tooling or on hiring someone. All it took was a few days of research.

The alternative is the version I see all the time: a year in, months spent trying to get users, no idea why it isn't working, and exhausted.

What you should not spend money on yet

Design, development, a logo, a company, ads, an agency, or a no-code build. None of that answers the question you are asking right now.

Keep reading

How Do I Validate an App Idea Without Building It?

How to Define Your Target Market When You Have an App Idea

How Much Does It Actually Cost to Build an App in 2026?

Learn this with me

The first half of From Passion to Product answers this question, and the course is free. Class 2 is the online research you do before you talk to anyone, and class 4 is the conversations, in that order, because the research is what makes the conversations worth having.

Six weeks, live, and you do it on your own idea.

I also teach the same six weeks in person with nonprofits and community organisations on the BC coast, which is the version for a group of people in one town rather than one founder alone.

Join the waitlist, get the workbook, or read about the community cohorts.