Validation, done the way I teach it, costs about a week and no money. A pivot costs whatever you built, whatever the rebuild costs, and the part nobody budgets for, which is how it feels to start again.

So the answer is usually obvious. What is worth knowing is where the two overlap, because sometimes building a small thing is the fastest way to learn.

What validation actually costs

• Two days reading what people already say about the problem online.
• Three to seven conversations with people who have it. Three is enough to continue; after about five of the same kind of person you hear the same things repeating.
• A day on the competing solutions, which includes the spreadsheets and group chats, not just apps.

That is the cheapest moment you will ever have to find out you are wrong. One student's idea was disproven during the research week of my course, and it cost them a few days instead of months of time, stress and whatever they would have spent on tools or a developer.

The online research and the competitive step are also the two places where you can stop or turn. Those are the steps that save thousands of dollars and months of wasted time.

What a pivot costs

The build you already paid for. The rebuild, which is rarely cheaper than the original, because you are working around what exists. The users who already had a bad first impression. And the motivation, which is not a soft cost: it is hard to keep working on something that keeps not working out.

There is a worse version, which is the technical pivot. People build with the tool that was fastest, get close to launch, and find they cannot launch with it, so it is a rebuild from scratch. Take that build to an agency and they will tell you it is a good start and they have to start over.

The honest argument for building first

Some things cannot be learned by talking. If the concept is new and hard to describe, or the question is technical (can this integration work, is it fast enough), then build the smallest thing that answers that specific question.

Building first is also fine when the cost is tiny and you are testing a solution, not a problem. The rule I would put on it: you must already know the problem is real, and you must be able to say what would make you stop.

The dishonest argument for building first

"I'll learn more by shipping it" when what you mean is that you would rather build than talk to people. That is the expensive version, and it is the most common one.

There is also a real trap in showing people a finished thing: they get distracted by what is in front of them and react to your screens instead of telling you about their life. A rough concept gets you better information than a polished product.

The cheapest middle ground

Do the problem research, then test the solution without building it: a concierge version you run by hand, a page with a price on it, a rough prototype. If people will not pay you to do it manually, you will struggle to get them to pay for the app.

And once you do build, release in pieces. Scoping the whole thing and launching it fully built removes your chance to course correct while it is still cheap.

The one thing validation cannot do

It cannot tell you people will pay. Payment either happens or it does not, and people say they will and then do not. Some things you can only fully test with beta users and money on the table. You do everything you can to remove risk on the way there, and you accept that the last bit of risk is real.

Keep reading

How Do I Validate an App Idea Without Building It?

How to Validate a SaaS Idea Before Writing a Single Line of Code

MVP vs. Prototype vs. Proof of Concept: What's Actually the Difference?

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