Got a game-changing idea but not sure if it’s a hit or a miss? Before you dive headfirst into the entrepreneurial deep end, let’s make sure your concept floats. Crafting the perfect validation survey is your secret weapon to gather real insights and steer clear of startup pitfalls. Here are six tips to help you nail it!
1. Understand Your Value Proposition
A clear value proposition is like a superpower—without it, you’re just a person in spandex.
- Clear Messaging: Make sure your survey communicates the core benefits of your product. If respondents don’t get it, your message needs work.
- Target Audience Identification: Know who your ideal respondents are. Demographic and psychographic profiling will help you reach the right people.
- Competitor Analysis: Study your competition to find the gaps your product can fill. This helps in crafting questions that highlight your unique selling points.
2. Clearly Define Your Survey Goals
The first step in creating a successful validation survey is to clearly define your goals. Without a clear understanding of what you aim to achieve, your survey might end up collecting irrelevant or confusing data. Here’s how to set precise goals for your survey:
Identify Key Objectives
Start by asking yourself what you need to learn from the survey. Are you trying to gauge market interest, understand customer preferences, or determine the viability of a pricing strategy? Here are some common objectives:
- Market Interest: Determine if there is a demand for your product or service.
- Feature Preferences: Find out which features potential customers value the most.
- Pricing Strategies: Understand what price points are acceptable to your target audience.
By pinpointing your primary objectives, you can tailor your survey questions to gather the most relevant data.
Desired Outcomes
Once you have identified your objectives, define what success looks like. For instance, if your goal is to assess market interest, a successful outcome might be a certain percentage of respondents expressing a high level of interest in your product. If you are testing feature preferences, you might look for clear trends indicating which features are most desired.
3. Prototyping
Prototyping is your best friend. Sure, it’s not strictly necessary, but showing is always better than telling—just like in those crime shows where the detective finally connects the dots.
- Create Low-Fidelity Prototypes: Begin with basic prototypes like sketches or wireframes. These are cheap and effective, much like instant noodles.
- Interactive Prototypes: Develop clickable prototypes to simulate the user experience and gather detailed feedback on design and usability using tools like Figma or InVision.
- Test with Real Users: Engage potential customers in usability testing sessions to observe their interactions with your prototype and identify areas for improvement.
4. Use Behavioral Science Techniques
Incorporating principles from behavioral science can significantly improve the effectiveness of your surveys.
- Question Framing: Avoid leading questions. For example, instead of asking “How wonderful was your experience?” ask “How would you rate your experience?” This reduces bias and ensures more accurate data.
- Ask About Behavior, Not Opinions: According to “The Mom Test,” focus on past behaviors rather than hypothetical scenarios. For example, ask, “Can you tell me about a time last month when you felt overwhelmed with your to-do list?” instead of “Would you use a tool that helps organize your daily tasks?” This approach helps in gathering concrete, actionable data.
- Listen More, Talk Less: Create a space where customers feel comfortable sharing their thoughts by asking open-ended questions and embracing silence. Avoid pitching your idea during these conversations.
- Incentivize Your respondents: Use small incentives to boost response rates. Even small rewards can work wonders—like promising a cookie for a kid’s clean room.
5. Identify and Mitigate Biases in Your Survey
When designing and analyzing surveys, it’s crucial to recognize and address biases that can skew your results. Biases can lead to inaccurate conclusions, misinform your decision-making process, and ultimately derail your product development. Here’s how to identify and mitigate common biases in your survey.
Acquiescence Bias Also known as “yea-saying,” this bias occurs when respondents have a tendency to agree with statements regardless of their actual opinions. This can distort the true sentiment of your survey results.
- Balanced Question Design: Include a mix of positively and negatively worded statements to prevent respondents from falling into a pattern of agreement.
- Neutral Phrasing: Frame questions in a neutral manner to avoid leading respondents toward a particular answer.
Social Desirability Bias This bias happens when respondents answer questions in a way that they believe will be viewed favorably by others. This often leads to overreporting of “good” behavior and underreporting of “bad” behavior.
- Anonymous Surveys: Ensure that surveys are anonymous to encourage honest responses.
- Indirect Questioning: Ask questions indirectly to reduce the pressure of socially desirable answers. For instance, instead of asking, “Do you always recycle?” you can ask, “How often do you find yourself unable to recycle?”
6. Combine with Other Validation Methods
Beyond surveys, there are several other methods to validate your product idea effectively.
- Fake Door Testing: Present a feature or product option to users as if it already exists and measure their interest by tracking clicks or sign-ups. This technique can gauge interest without fully developing the feature.
- Landing Page Testing: Develop a landing page that describes your product or feature and drives traffic to it through ads or social media. Measure conversions to assess interest and validate demand.
- A/B Testing: Compare two versions of a feature or landing page to see which performs better. This can help optimize your product offering based on user preferences.
Remember to keep your survey short (under 10 minutes) as this will also allow you to do another very important thing- keep going back to the same people with new iterations of your product.
In my experience, I have seen many companies where these first people helping you shape the products become your first and most loyal clients.
About the Author
Angkan Mukherjee works in growth strategy for high growth companies and is a graduate of the ESADE business school in Barcelona. Outside work, he volunteers as a mentor at incubators like eWorks and loves getting involved in every aspect of building ventures. He gets excited to talk to others like him and you can find some time to talk to him here.
References
- Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup. Crown Business.
- Maurya, A. (2012). Running Lean. O’Reilly Media. https://www.oreilly.com
- Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., & Smith, A. (2014). Value Proposition Design. Wiley.
- Sharon, T. (2016). Validating Product Ideas. Rosenfeld Media.
- Bland, D. J., & Osterwalder, A. (2019). Testing Business Ideas. Wiley.
- Fitzpatrick, R. (2013). The Mom Test. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
- Croll, A., & Yoskovitz, B. (2013). Lean Analytics. O’Reilly Media.
- Lawley, B., & Schure, P. (2017). Product Management for Dummies. For Dummies.
- Qualaroo. https://help.qualaroo.com/best-practices-and-survey-ideas
- https://www.producttalk.org/2023/10/assumption-testing/
- https://www.buecher.de/artikel/ebook/testing-business-ideas-ebook-pdf/58260432/