Pre-Launch Research Rarely Tells You If a Product Will Sell

“Choose 100 of your existing customers randomly. Ask them to describe your product/service in their own words. Then look at how you describe your product/service on your website. look at the gaps. Really look at the specific words. Really consider exactly what they’re saying and how they’re saying it. Compare that directly with the words you’re using, the descriptions you’re presenting, the picture you’re painting. In the end, you may know what to say and how to say it. submitted by /”

“I’ve built many products throughout my career, but one challenge I continue to struggle with is properly validating my ideas before investing significant time into building them. I often find myself getting excited about a problem, jumping straight into designing and developing a solution, and only later realizing that I haven’t fully validated whether the problem is painful enough, whether people actually want the solution, or whether they would pay for it. I know that building quickly is impor”

“You can make almost anything work if you position it differently and market to a different segment. Every product has demand they exist for a reason.”

“I work on a mockup-generation product, but I’m not looking for app reviews or installs here. I’m trying to understand how merchants evaluate mockup tools when they’re deciding whether to use one. For POD sellers specifically: • Do you use a dedicated mockup tool, or just whatever comes with your print provider? • What makes a mockup look “good enough” to use on a product listing? • How important are realistic shadows, fabric texture, hand models, lifestyle scenes, etc.? • If a tool has a free ti”

I've been launching some new products recently, and I'm interested in everyone's opinion on what is considered a dud vs. too soon to judge. For context, I launched a product a month…

“I’m exploring a B2B SaaS idea and trying to understand the problem deeply before building anything. For founders who have built SaaS products, how did you validate that a problem was painful enough? Did you start with user interviews, communities, cold outreach, or something else? submitted by /u/Competitive-Emu-4411 [link] [comments]”

Tangible, real products

“I’d separate “validation” into 3 layers, because people often mix them together. Problem validation — do people actually have this pain, and is it frequent/expensive enough? Offer validation — does a specific promise make them take action? Acquisition validation — can you reach those people at a cost that makes the business work? The mistake I see founders make is treating conversations or survey responses as proof. They’re useful, but they mostly measure politeness. I’d rather see behavior: cli”

“How did you validate your idea ? Have you done that before developing ? Are you sure that what you created solves a real problem ?”

“That framing will probably make the product easier to trust too. If you label outputs as “assumptions to test” instead of “customer truth,” the user knows what job the tool is doing. The output could even split into: - likely objections - risky assumptions - better interview questions - wording to test - evidence still needed from real users That makes it useful without overselling certainty.”

“What are the steps you would take to "validate the problem" to an audience?”

“Running a small clothing-focused project and I keep coming back to this question: what actually moved the needle for customer confidence around fit? Not just "better product pages" in the abstract, but the specific thing that made people less hesitant to click buy. Was it size guides that were actually detailed? More photos showing how something drapes on different body types? Customer reviews with measurements? Something else entirely? I've been reading a lot about virtual try-on”

“Crystal clear! thanks for the advice. You have experience with ML algorithms?”

“Hi all, I'm working on an agritech product (predictive models for dairy farms) and we're in the field-validation phase (TRL 5). I'd love to hear from anyone who's validated an agritech product in the real world: IoT sensors, algorithms, predictive models, anything where you had to prove it works on an actual farm, not just in a test set. A few things I'm trying to understand from people who've been through it: How long did validation actually take you? From "we think”

“I've been stuck on this question for a few days. I've been building a consumer hardware product for a while now, and the closer we get to production, the more I wonder if I'm solving the wrong problem. When we start, I kept thinking about features: better hardware, better design, more functions, but now I'm not even sure customers care about half of that. The more prople I talk to, the more I feel they don't buy features, they buy a feeling and that makes product decisions a”

“Hey I had a question about market research, what is the best way to do it? I know that I want to build something in the sports analysis niche. I have some expertise that I built over the years, but I suck at market research, and I don’t really have the budget to hire a big consulting firm to do it. What are the best ways you have found to conduct market research and in consequence was able to build a product that was important and your ICP’s were ready to pay for. submitted by /u/bub”

“How are you validating demand without letting people buy it? I am starting my first ecommerce brand and I just received initial samples of our product. We are starting with laptop cases and expanding from there is things look promising. We were going to use the samples for product images while we make any final tweaks and get the first batch rolling. In the meantime what would people suggest doing for understanding interest in the product? My partner wants to run ads to our website that only has”

“At what point when building a physical consumer product do you look into filing a trademark for your brand name, and getting a design patent? I'm currently at the CAD phase before moving to prototype stage. I would appreciate any insight from those who had a similar journey! submitted by /u/Wild-Ostrich1205 [link] [comments]”

“For a small POD test, would you rather see a product concept as a plain mockup first or as a short story about the problem it is meant to solve? I am trying not to build merch before the signal is real. One phrase I am considering is: "I need one next step, not more advice." Does that read wearable, useful, or too on-the-nose for a shirt or hoodie? No links, just trying to learn what would make this worth testing or killing. submitted by /u/HonestMeasurement978 [link]”

“Im currently employed and have been working on a B2B SaaS product in advertising tech in my free time and am wondering how everyone has been successful in doing market research and validating their product. I come from a technical background and while I can build, I have no experience in startups and the business side of software. I’ve enjoyed building but would rather validate the product before really sinking time and money into this. Any advice and guidance is really appreciated. submit”

“I might've made the rookie mistake of creating the product first before validating. This is not a marketing post - not interested in showing/talking about what the product is, but rather seeking advice/insights on validating and getting first customers. I have a working prototype of the product that I can demo (context: it's software) - one that I'd feel comfortable having people pay for in its current state and have "the lights turned on" so to say. However, I didn't v”

“So I'm looking at having a new variant (possibly up to 3 variants) of a product made that would each take a custom mould. I am planning to poll my customer base to see which ones they may want, however my concern is anyone can vote but when it comes to order time they may not want to order then I'm stuck. I'm willing to do all 3 if the demand is there. My thought would be to have people do a down payment of about 50% of the total product cost up front (would be in the $100 range for”

“Hi, after a few failed attempts at building my own application (for several reasons) I have started feeling like every idea that comes to my mind has flaws and nobody will use those applications. What are your tactics to validate your idea so you can understand that its not just a good feature rather its a good opportunity users are willing to pay ? And while doing so how can you prevent your idea from being stolen ? submitted by /u/ihiwidkwtdiid [link] [comments]”

“Everyone says "find your customer." That makes perfect sense when you're solving a well-understood problem. But what if you built a tool and people keep finding uses for it that you never expected? Imagine you invent the first hammer. You create it because people are struggling to drive nails with rocks. So naturally, you think your users are people who need to drive nails. Then people start using the hammer to break things apart. Or straighten bent metal. Or remove old boards. Or”

“TLDR: How do you get real validation for a technical product when friends/family are not the users, and only people familiar with the workflow can judge whether the problem is worth solving? The idea I’m working on is tied to a specific workflow and a specific type of user. It’s not something I came up with randomly. I’ve seen signs of the problem happening in the space, and after looking into it more, it seems like a real issue. The hard part is that the problem is not obvious unless y”

“I have many ideas, and i know most of them are trash, but some ideas may have some potential, so i wanna know how you guys do market research? Like just generally searching on Google, asking AI or something else? submitted by /u/Physical_Director804 [link] [comments]”

“I have an idea of building an app that writes scripts, is it a good idea to send waitlisting site to everyone before actually building it? What other ideas can I use to validate my product before launching? submitted by /u/Any_Table3459 [link] [comments]”

“A question for founders: How do you make important product decisions before you have enough data? Pricing changes. New positioning. New features. New customer segments. New markets. The advice is usually: talk to customers run experiments ship and learn But many decisions happen before you have enough traffic, customers, or time to run meaningful tests. I'm curious: What's the biggest decision you've made recently where you wished you could have seen the likely consequences before co”

“A lot of small business decisions look good on paper but turn out differently once real customers are involved. For business owners here, what’s one decision you made early on that you wish you had tested or confirmed first? Could be pricing, products, branding, suppliers, marketing, anything. Curious to hear the lessons learned. submitted by /u/Stunning-Two-2621 [link] [comments]”

“I want to create an extension and add a paid subscription model to monetize it. However, before starting the project, I want to investigate whether my idea is worthwhile and whether it is needed by many people, but I'm not sure how to do it. submitted by /u/Apart-Road-30 [link] [comments]”

“Hey everyone, I am college student working on a consumer product idea that I had, and recently finished building a proof of concept/prototype. I took that and went around my city talking to owners of retail stores to get their opinions, as they would know the customers best, and out of 11 stores I was able to get 7 of them to sign LOIs, but honestly I feel like only 4 of them were "enthusiastic" about it. I keep seeing advice about creating a landing page with a refundable deposit, and”

“Building a B2B tool, compliance and onboarding tool for home-care agencies, and I need honest feedback from people who fit the use case. Looked at UserTesting and Maze but the panels feel too generic for a niche product, and $99/mo for the 1-2 research cycles I run a quarter is rough ROI for where I'm at. Freelancers give me one perspective and I pay before I see if the work is any good. How are you all getting fast, useful feedback on a small budget? Open to whatever's actually working,”

“Can you tell me how you come up with ideas for your business? Do you use any strategic tools or patterns to find the idea? So, let's say you're looking for an idea for a Micro SaaS. How would you go about doing that? Do you mind telling me how you come up with ideas for your business? Do you use any strategic tools or patterns to find the idea? So, let's say you're looking for an idea for a Micro SaaS. Any idea how to do that? I had a lot of ideas, but I didn't end up bringin”

“One of the biggest lessons I've learned after years of building businesses: Test demand before spending months building. I used to spend 6+ months creating products before launching them, only to find out nobody actually wanted what I built. It was painful, expensive, and a huge waste of time. Now, I validate ideas as early as possible. Create a simple landing page explaining your product or service. Run a small amount of traffic to it. If people are interested, have them join a waitlist or”

“Hey ERA — doing this the right way and validating before I write a single line of code. Background: I'm a designer (Figma/Canva) looking to build a side project that hits $500/mo. I've been obsessing over one specific pain point I personally have — that moment where you're about to buy something and genuinely don't know if you should. Not because you don't have money in your account. But because you've lost track of what you've already spent today. The idea is dead si”

“If you don't know who are your target customers, why you want to develop the prototype, the normally procedure to introduce an products to market as below: Phase 1: Validation & Positioning (Pre-Launch) Phase 2: Go-To-Market Tactics Phase 3: Launch Execution Hope it can help you a little”

“-commerce brand. 20 wholesale accounts. the marketplace idea (connecting brands with retailers through a curated catalog). validation approach: sent a google form to 40 brands in my network. "would you pay $200/month to be listed in a curated wholesale catalog with 30+ retailers?" 14 of 40 said yes. 35% conversion on a survey. the demand is real. the next step: build a minimum viable catalog. 10 brands. 30 retailers. the ai brochure maker (visual”

“-commerce brand. 20 wholesale accounts. the marketplace idea (connecting brands with retailers through a curated catalog). validation approach: sent a google form to 40 brands in my network. "would you pay $200/month to be listed in a curated wholesale catalog with 30+ retailers?" 14 of 40 said yes. 35% conversion on a survey. the demand is real. the next step: build a minimum viable catalog. 10 brands. 30 retailers. the ai brochure maker (visual”

“What's the best tool to build a landing page, showcase some of your product, collect emails to validate demand? I know there are a million tools, and the urge to build the page myself is strong but I just want to spend as little time and effort as possible on this and am hoping someone on here has the solution for me. Please share your experience. Also, if you have notes on this specific validation method, please share as well - I am not sure if landing p”

“What's the best tool to build a landing page, showcase some of your product, collect emails to validate demand? I know there are a million tools, and the urge to build the page myself is strong but I just want to spend as little time and effort as possible on this and am hoping someone on here has the solution for me. Please share your experience. Also, if you have notes on this specific validation method, please share as well - I am not sure if landing”

“At what point does your team feel confident enough to ship a new flow? I keep hearing two camps: "we ship fast and fix with data" vs "we try to validate before launch." The first camp moves fast but sometimes ships friction they didn't see coming. The second camp is slower but more confident. Is there a middle path that actually works, getting real behavioral signal on a new feature without weeks of coordination? subm”

“Essentially it's sales. You ask your identified potential customers something like: "If I provide you with X, at Y quality/features, by Z date, would you pay W for it?" There's obviously a lot more to what those details might actually be, and it's not always easy to get them right enough to have a shared understanding. But the fundamental idea is pretty much that you want to make them promise to buy something from you, if you're able to deliver it accordi”