Product and MVP testing roadmap
You now have an overview of the different options you have to validate your product or market. Now it's time to think about how you will validate your assumptions for your business.
What is a Validational Roadmap?
A validational roadmap is simply a plan of what kind of validations you will run, when, how and what you want to achieve with them.
Why is making a roadmap important?
It's good to think about your most uncertain assumptions and validate them early on as well as have a plan to go forward to keep your focus. Of course, the plan can and most likely will change along the way.
How to create a Validational Roadmap?
First, keep in mind that there are three broad areas you want to validate:
Desirability: customers want your offer because it solves a need
Viability: customers are ready to pay and you can reach profitability
Feasibility: you can technically, operationally and legally build the solution
Based on this, you can start creating your set-ups to validate some of these points. You can use the different techniques from the previous chapter to validate them. Below, Framework: Validational Roadmap shows what questions to ask yourself.
1. What assumptions do you want to validate?
Are you validating assumptions related to desirability, viability, feasibility? Which ones are the most uncertain ones? These can be related to anything from your business model, while the most uncertain assumptions are usually related to the innovation you are bringing.
2. How will you run your test?
This is everything related to the strategy or the combination of strategies you want to use. For example, let's say you are building an automated matchmaking platform for coaches and companies who need service. You first validation might be interviews and surveys of coaches and companies to understand better their needs. You second validation can be the manual execution of matchmaking of coaches and companies. Your third validation can be a first version on an actual product which you will also develop incrementally starting with a prototype, basic functions and then evolving it to a "final" product.
3. What do you need to prepare for execution?
Do you need to create a prototype? A landing page? Both? Organize a sale booth? You will do it?
4. What measurable results do you want to achieve?
What metrics are going to measure? Is it the number of sign-ups? The number of purchases? Crowdfunding funds raised? Set clear goals so that you can track it.
It's not the actual framework that matter but the act of thinking through it, to have a clear understanding of where you are going and being able to execute, measure, learn and adjust later on.