Testing Business Ideas: Uncovering Product Potential Before Writing a Line of Code

How to start your own product or business as a tech expert

Original post on Ampli

“If you can build a product, you’re already half way to building a successful business…”.

Well, actually you’re two steps ahead, leaving essential insights on the way and risking that no one will ever buy your product.

Don’t understand me wrong, I am not saying that engineers & tech professionals are no entrepreneurship material. The opposite, you actually bring essential skills to building your own venture that many others lack, you often can build your prototypes and eventually product yourself.

But, let’s make sure that your product actually hits the market, gets customers excited and brings you sustainable revenue.

Before we do that, let me introduce myself. I’m Nicola, an entrepreneur, innovation & startup expert. I’ve jumped on the entrepreneurship wagon years ago, having built an awarded venture before supporting 100+ aspiring entrepreneurs from tech, design, or business backgrounds in validating their business ideas.

Today, I’ll share my approach to helping you validate your business idea, so you can build with confidence.

Great Ideas Start with Assumptions

When you have the skills to build, ideas for products often come quickly and easily. But how do you know if an idea will sell?

One of the biggest pitfalls is just building the product to “see what happens.” That approach only works if you have unlimited time and money. For the rest of us, it’s best to be as certain as possible before writing a line of code. Here’s how to do that:

Step 1: Start by Mapping Assumptions

Every early-stage business idea is rooted in assumptions: we make educated guesses based on our experience, knowledge, and worldview. But how do we know if we’re right? Do others share the problem we’re solving? Would they pay for a solution?

Assumptions are a powerful starting point for testing. Begin by mapping out all your assumptions in three categories:

1. Assumptions about your target audience, their needs, and challenges
2. Assumptions about your product, its value, and its impact for customers
3. Assumptions about your business model, including how you’ll reach customers and generate revenue

Try this: set a 15-minute timer for each category and write down what you believe to be true—no need for evidence at this stage.

Don’t judge your assumptions in any way. Just write down what you believe to be true, no evidence is needed at that stage.

Step 2: Turn Assumptions into Testable Hypotheses

Now that you’ve got your assumptions, it’s time to validate them. To do that, convert your assumptions into hypotheses. A hypothesis takes an assumption and makes it specific, measurable, and testable.

A good hypothesis should be:

• Testable: It can be proven true (validated) or false (invalidated).
• Precise: You have a clear metric for success.
• Discrete: It describes one clear, specific idea you’re testing.

For example:

• Assumption: Engineering managers struggle to onboard tech talent efficiently.
• Hypothesis: At least 60% of engineering managers report that onboarding new tech talent takes longer than expected and negatively impacts team productivity in the first three months.

A well-defined hypothesis brings much-needed clarity, even if you’re only talking to a small sample size.

Step 3: Design Experiments to Gather Insights

With clear, testable hypotheses, you’re ready to design experiments to gather insights. There are many options beyond just customer interviews or MVPs:

• Conduct an online survey
• Run a social media campaign promoting your concept
• Do a mock sale
• Gather feedback on rough paper mockups
• Create a simple explainer video
• Set up a landing page for sign-ups
• Deliver your solution’s value manually (this is often called a “Concierge” or “Wizard of Oz” approach)

Customer interviews are a must in any case; they’re invaluable, even if it feels uncomfortable to talk to customers before you have a product. Start with 5-10 interviews, then layer on other tests to gain further insights. Listen to feedback, adjust as needed, and build your confidence in what customers truly want.

Step 4: Make Strategic Decisions and Iterate

The most valuable part of customer discovery is making sense of your findings. After gathering data from interviews and experiments, it’s time to make strategic choices based on what you’ve learned:

1. If your hypothesis is validated: Great! Move forward with a stronger foundation and set new hypotheses for the next phase.
2. If your hypothesis is invalidated: No worries; this is part of the process. Decide whether to:
   • Persevere: Run a stronger experiment to dig deeper.
   • Pivot: Adjust your focus, target a new audience, or rethink your business model.
   • Kill the idea: If feedback consistently shows your idea isn’t viable, it might be best to let it go. It’s not personal—it’s about finding the best path forward.

Key takeaways

Let’s sum this up with some key takeaways:

1. When you start, your business or product idea is based on assumptions. Your job is to validate (or invalidate) them to gain confidence in your direction.
2. You need clear, testable hypotheses as a starting point for your customer discovery.
3. You should have an “experimentation mindset”, not just building but setting up experiment after experiment to move forward with confidence.
4. The most important step will be to make sense of the insights. That will sometimes be easy and sometimes be really really difficult.
5. Connect & talk with others to widen your horizon about what experiments are possible. Unlock your network for connections to potential customers for feedback.

Ready to test your business idea strategically?

If this article resonates with you, I’m here to support you further. I would love to invite you to my Idea Launch Lab Accelerator, which guides you through exactly this process. From uncertainty if your idea will work to clarity, well-designed experiments, and real-world insights.

So, if you want confidence in your entrepreneurial path, reach out. I am excited to invite you to join me for a FREE 30min Business Idea Review Call where I’d love to give you first feedback on your idea, help you define strategic next steps, and answer any questions you might have.

Let’s connect!