You may think your idea is ‘the next big thing’, however it is wise to test and validate the idea before you waste time and effort (and money!) developing a product or service for which there is no profitable market. By validating your idea and proving its worth, the work you will do from then on will be much easier..

Step 1: Do a Search

No matter how brilliant you think your idea is, your first move should be a search online to see if it already exists. If there is isn’t, congratulations! If you find that there is an existing product or service on the market, don’t fret - instead look at ways you can improve upon what already exists. Does your idea offer better value to your potential customer? Can you better satisfy the market?.

Step 2: Identify a Market

Understanding the opportunities within the market helps you validate the initial assumptions about your idea. Consider the following questions:

• How big is the current market for your product/service?
• Is it a new or well developed market?
• Are you in a new or mature category of product/service?
• Who is your competition? At what price are they selling their product/service?

Step 3: Identify your Customer

Profiling your “perfect customer” gives additional insight into how you should approach selling your idea to people, while also tailoring the product or service to better fit the needs of your customer base. Consider the following questions as you identify your customer:

• Are they male or female?
• How old are they? Child or adult?
• Employed or unemployed?
• Are they married? Do they have a family?
• What motivates them to purchase a particular product or service?
• Who influences the purchases they make?
• When do they shop? What time?
• Where do they shop? Do they prefer to visit a store or shop online?

Step 4: Test Your Idea

The idea validation board is a great way to visualise your idea while you spend time developing (and redeveloping) it into your final product or service. There isn’t one product or service available today that is the same as it was in its idea stage. Take YouTube for instance - it started as an online dating site.

Step 5: Seek Feedback

One of the best ways to test your idea is to talk to others about it, especially people whose opinion you trust. When you’re trying to determine whether your idea is any good, brutal honest feedback is what you want.