What is demand?

Validating the demand for your product is more important than anything It's more important than features, than finding a cool name or hiring a full stack dev - EVERYTHING. Without an Application - you will have a product that no one will pay for. You'll waste a lot of time, money and might even end up curled up under your desk. And that's not cool.

Demand is the intensity with which a group of people desire a solution to meet a need. Several factors influence the intensity of demand:

• How urgent is it to satisfy this need?
• What happens if we do nothing?
• Why is it not possible to satisfy this need at this time?
• Is it a recurring or one-time need?
• How many people have this need?
• Where are these people?

What is market validation?

Market validation is the process of determining whether your product is of interest to a target market. Market validation usually involves a series of interviews with people in your target market. It should take place before you make any significant investment in your product/concept.
Start by gathering your ideas and the information you have. This forces you to consider things you may have overlooked before. I'm not talking about writing a "business plan." (At this stage, writing a business plan is not the best use of your time and it will change as soon as you start talking to potential clients anyway).
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Advocate a "Lean" approach, that is, a minimalist approach. I suggest you use a template like the Lean Canvas. It's a business plan template that fits on one page and helps you deconstruct your idea by making assumptions. Why are we talking about assumptions? Simply because until your ideas, solutions, or features have been validated by your target, nothing is set in stone. Be straightforward, write down some basic assumptions that you can test.
So, here are some tips to validate your idea/market before you launch.

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1. Identify a need? ‍

Many entrepreneurs think about the product first - they focus too much on features, launch the product, and then wonder why their product is struggling. Focus here only on the need and the problems that arise if it is not met. The specific solution will come later. You need to be explicit about the need and the targeted problems. IMPORTANT- It must be part of your future customers' priorities, so that they agree to pay for your solution. Know that - EVEN if you have the best product and EVEN if you have the BEST support or the most BEAUTIFUL application, these customers simply won't have time (or budget) to spend with you if your product doesn't solve a PROBLEM that is central to their concerns. So do your research, explore and enrich your assumptions with information from the field.

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2. Examine the competition ‍

Many entrepreneurs know very little about their competitors. This is a serious mistake, since competitors represent a wealth of information. In fact, this analysis will allow you to determine your competitive advantage! Even if your competitors have similar products or services, a few details distinguish your business from theirs. You can take advantage of these specifications and stand out in your industry.
If no one else is offering the product or service you are thinking of, it may not be a profitable idea. That doesn't mean it's a bad idea, but...it may mean there is no market or that your problem is too specific. Specificity is good, but you need to balance it with a large enough market.
On the other hand, if you have existing competitors looking to solve the same problem, you can examine their traction. Are they growing fast? Do they have a sufficient volume of customers? Are they raising (or have they raised) money? Are they hiring? Look for signs of growth.

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How does your product solve these problems?

Only after you have noted the problem do you move on to the product. From there, you link the value of your product directly to your target's problems:

• How does solving their problems improve their lives?
• Does the solution allow them to make more money?
• Reduce costs?
• Decrease wasted time?

Features need to be more than "just cool"-they need to solve real problems and provide measurable benefits... Again, I encourage you to use a minimalist approach and limit the feature set as much as possible (you need to provide just enough value for some customers to buy).

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3. Validate your assumptions‍

Once you have made some basic decisions and written down your assumptions, go out and test them to see if they resonate with potential customers.
Partial market validation is based on interviews with potential buyers of your product. You can also test your assumptions by interviewing experts (e.g., industry analysts, people who have been employed by the industry, consultants, etc.) There are also great ways to test your ideas with Landing Pages and social media ads.

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• Finding your market segment -A common mistake when defining your target market is "our market is the whole world, it's every company! Tell yourself that it's better to start small and expand later. Aim for small wins, the most noticeable segment of wanting to try your product. This will keep you focused on the basics.
• Build a prospect list-You can do research through your network of friends, social networks, or on communities like reddit, whatever, by all means try to talk to people who share the problem you want to solve. Be brief and to the point - don't waste their time. Specify a day and time you want to talk - avoid the ping-pong of emails.
• Ask relevant questions- Make a short introduction, ask if they are concerned about the problem, on a scale of 1 to 5, what level is the problem, how are they handling this type of problem now? Would they pay for a solution to the problem? If they are already using an existing solution, does it have any weaknesses?
• Don't forget to ask "Why?"-This is by far the most important question you can ask. The more you ask it, the closer you'll get to the truth. Unfortunately, this question is not used enough - too many people ask a question and then mistake the answer for cash. This is a missed opportunity to understand the motivation and validate what your customers are really doing.
• Explain your value proposition- Your product should have a clear benefit that potential customers can see and understand when they compare your product to others. It's okay to have feature parity as a baseline, but it should only be 80% of your product. At least 20% of your product should be better - not different for the sake of being different, but clearly better.

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4. Ask for advice‍

You will always make mistakes in your career path, but it helps to avoid the usual mistakes that others have made before you. This is my favorite way to learn. You can Google and try to learn everything on your own, but a community can greatly improve your learning curve.
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Don't be afraid to ask for advice from entrepreneurs or people who know the market segment you are targeting, you will be surprised, most people are happy to share their experiences.

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5. Make a decision

If you get a good response on average from the people you've consulted, don't waste any more time and take action. If you decide to go ahead with your idea? Congratulations, you now have users with whom you can talk about features and user experience. Maybe some of them will even become your first customers.
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Now you can call on Holio to bring your idea to life by building your MVP (Minimum Viable Product)! The nice thing about this is that you've spent $0 so far. That's great!

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