Burst of ideas are a dime a dozen. Anyone that's ever taken a shower has had at least one great idea, and a dozen good ones. What stops a lot of people are the their own fears and their unwillingness to bet on their own skills and talents. Even if you don't know anything if you attack a problem like a mad man you can eventually come out on top - or at very least learn some valuable lessons that can help you with the next project.
First question I ask myself when I've got a new idea is - Is there anyone else doing this? If so I can pretty much figure out if they are doing it right or are completely off basis and the market is ripe for more aggressive competition.
2nd question, Lets say no one is doing this - Then why? Why hasn't someone thought about it or done it before. That's where you'll discover most of the pitfalls in the idea while doing this research. Most of the time I find some weak competitors or some random developer in some 3rd world country has already built something exactly to my idea but they lack marketing skills or capital to get things going. So again the market is ripe for competition. If I find some serious obstacles that are going to require me to rely on a 3rd party's data or something it's probably not a great scenario since that 3rd party can shut down access or go out of business, so that's something else to consider.
But lets say the stars are starting to align and now I need validation, this is where I differ from most. I plunge 100% into a project/service until is more then a MVP - Minimum Viable Product, cause when I come to market I want to be nearly the best or in the best state that people are like wow. I know tons of people will disagree, but I realistically have done about 1-3 months of research by then in an industry to figure out if there really is a market or at least a need. Am I showcasing something to an audience that can give them an advantage over their competitors or something that's so unique copycats are bound to attempt to mimic if - if so, they we're onto something.
That's where beta testers come in. Get 3-4 of the top guys in whatever industry you are going into and have them beta test the service and get their feedback on what they like and don't like - this is real beta testing. The people in the industry that are pretty much the 'masters' of an industry will give you the best feedback on whether it's a viable service or not. BUT you also will need to consider the newbies in the industry, can they easily understand what's going on, what's not going on? Is the interface simple enough for an average user to get started by just looking at the interface?
Validation comes when you see your beta testers logging in more and more into the service playing around with it. But just because you have a great service doesn't mean people are willing to pay for it. If your targeting people who are broke or simply generally want what you provide for free, it'll be an uphill battle. So knowing who the end target audience is and what they expect is crucial for anything you do. What are they willing to pay for now, what are they not willing to pay for. Is what you provide a necessity or simply a luxury. If they use your service then stop using your service, will there be a new pain in their life? Did your service really solve a problem they had or just an annoyance. Is your audience going to be simply around cause of the shiny new object syndrome or are they in it for the serious long haul if you provide a solution to their problem(s)?
But with all that said don't discount the MVP route - creating something simple and easy enough with a low barrier for your customers to entry that will have people jumping onboard and then start adding features when customers start banging on your door that they will either cancel or not sign up until XYZ is done. I'm just a weird beast, I've created products and services that I went 100% in and completely failed, not complete flops but failed in the end or ended up just not being worth the time put in, when that happens it's just on to the next one...
This guy has a great story about his StoreMapper:
Storemapper: Bootstrapped to $50,000/year in 2 years (with live metrics)
Gail Goodman, Founder of Constant Contact also has a great video about her journey as well:
https://vimeo.com/54076835
I'm also a huge believer in only working on a single project 100% of the time until you get it to a point it can grow itself, but even then you don't want to ever "step away", but rather have someone manage the day to day while you concentrate on the bigger picture items.
Problem is even now I've got 3-4 really great ideas that can take several other industry to the next level cause there is an overall lack of serious people in them, but I can't work on them until my first project is at a point where I know it's perfect. So I wait, usually during that waiting period I do more research and those 3-4 ideas get withered down to 1-2 ideas after some research, but if I know that "THIS" project here is poised to be HUGE I drop everything I'm doing and just concentrate on that. It's a horrible experience for people that want to communicate with me or work with me on other projects, cause it is as if I disappeared for 1-2 weeks until I get something solid enough or on paper that the itch has been scratch at bare minimum. I've probably ruined a ton of relationship - business and personal just from lack of excitement on the current projects being worked on, which I've been working on not doing by simply committing to one project as of the las 2-3 years. But when I get that itch, I won't sleep, eat, answer the phone or skype messages, it's a complete disaster, I forget to pay bills and other essential things cause that itch is just too great and it has to be scratched. I need to know whether this idea will work out or not - and if I'm working on a project that doesn't bring me that level of excitement or that itch, that project isn't going to get my 100% full attention, that's the said reality.
Final note - you can be 100% sure that what you are working on is going to be a huge winner, but when you come to market, people don't understand it (they think it's too complicating or overwhelming), or simply think they don't need it. That shit happens a lot. Either gear up your guides and tutorials about the benefits to end user or know you can pivot if things don't go as planned. You'll have an uphill battle but hell you might just come out on top...
Bring on the hate...
