free tools in PDF

20 experiments with real

cases you can copy

VALIDATION
20 WAYS TO TEST YOUR BUSINESS IDEAS
 say hi —> hello@boardofinnova@on.com

Feel free to tweak, fix, remix Board of Innova@on makes

any part of this work, as long corpora@ons innovate like
as it is for non-commercial startups, mixing proven
purposes. methods from Design Thinking
Good karma on you if you and Lean Startup.
credit Board of Innova@on. www.boardofinnova@on.com

Some of the clients with whom we are proud to work

 VALIDATION
20 WAYS TO TEST YOUR
BUSINESS IDEAS
with free tools in PDF and
20 real cases you can copy

Some of the clients with whom we are proud to work

Step 0

Before we start:
what the heck is valida@on?
What is valida7on?

valida&on • n, the process of gathering

evidence and learnings around
business ideas through
experimenta@on and user tes@ng, in
order to make faster, informed, de-
risked decisions.
Risk / $

i ld
bu
u ild
b
i ld
bu

uild
b
Through experimenta@on and
Time
valida@on, you move away from
Release and the standard innova@on approach
validate!
used in corporates (read: build the
car, launch it on the market)…
Waterfall approach
High risk
Valida@on of the business proposi@on at release
Limited itera@ons
Budget-consuming
Valida@on of the whole concept at final release
 Risk / $

e nt e nt e nt nt
e
e rim er i m er i m
r i m
p p p p e
ex ex
… towards a lean, resource op@mised ex ex
Time
approach, where evidence from user-
tes@ng de-risks decision making. Release and Release and Release and Release and
validate! validate! validate! validate!

Lean approach
Low risk
Mul@ple checkpoints for valida@on
Mul@ple itera@ons
Budget is progressively increased once hypothesis are validated
Valida@on of individual hypothesis through mul@ple experiments
Risk / $ Risk / $

i ld
bu
u ild
b
i ld
bu
e nt e nt e nt nt
e
uild e rim er i m er i m
r i m
b p p p p e
ex ex ex ex
Time Time

Release and Release and Release and Release and Release and
validate! validate! validate! validate! validate!

Waterfall approach Lean approach

High risk Low risk
Valida@on of the business proposi@on at release Mul@ple checkpoints for valida@on
Limited itera@ons Mul@ple itera@ons
Budget-consuming Budget is progressively increased once hypothesis are validated
Valida@on of the whole concept at final release Valida@on of individual hypothesis through mul@ple experiments
Valida7on step by step:

Step 1 Step 2
 Step 3

Define your focus: what do you seek to Map out your assump7ons, priori7ze the Choose and design
validate? most cri7cal ones and convert them into the relevant experiments
hypothesis ready to be tested to test your hypotheses
Cleary define your challenge, and at what
stage of the innova@on funnel you’re in, in Regardless the stage you’re in (problem Once you have ranked your assump@ons
order to select relevant experiment types space, solu@on space, business or pricing and defined key hypotheses you want to
to validate various aspects of your models), you can now map out the test, you can select the most suitable
business proposi@on. assump@ons. experiment(s) to test and validate (or
reject) your hypotheses.
Tool: Assump@on Mapper
Tool: Experiment Execu@on Card
Step 1

Define your focus,
aka. what are we valida@ng?
What are you aiming to validate?

Experimenta@on is used primarily to learn faster

by tes@ng with real customers in order to
understand how they will engage with your
business idea. It is therefore crucial to define
the goal of what you are trying to learn before
launching an experiment.
 In which stage are you?
Depending on the stage of the innova@on funnel you’re
in, you’ll need to validate different elements of your
business proposi@on, so that you can pick different kinds
of experiments.

Problems: at the very Solu7ons: Does your Features: test core Business Model: test Pricing: test the pricing
beginning of your offer solve this need features that are crucial the viability of the model of your product
innova@on path, you’ll and is the customer for adding value to your solu@on you designed.
 or service. 

need to test whether a willing to pay?
 solu@on.
 
 

problem you iden@fied 
 
 Example: would energy Example: should you
is a problem worth Example: is a lamp with Example: should the providers be interested pay for the lamp (299€)
solving for your movement detector lamp be this bright? in partnering in selling or for the energy
customer.
 what people are looking these energy-saving package that includes

 for? lamps? lamps and energy?
Example: do people 

really need bu]on-free
ligh@ng systems for
their homes?

Step 2

Map out your assump@ons,
priori@ze the most cri@cal ones
and convert them into
hypothesis ready to be tested
Mapping out the assump7ons

Regardless the stage you’re in

(problem space, solu@on space,
business or pricing models), you can Some are 

hard to validate
now map out the assump@ons

Some are easy

to validate

All your assump7ons

Mapping out the assump7ons

Divide the assump@ons into categories - it will help

you focus on the assump@ons that really ma]er

Desirability Viability Feasibility Corporate fit

Client/user focus Business Model Tech constraints Strategy
 Mapping out the assump7ons

Then, priori@ze the valida@on of assump@ons

around user needs (desirability)

Cri7cal assump7ons
Very important!

Not-so-cri7cal
assump7ons
Probably not really Corporate fit
important Desirability Viability Feasibility Strategy
Client/user focus Business Model Tech constraints
Mapping out the assump7ons

To help you in the process of mapping out the assump@ons around

your new business concept, we designed the "Assump@on Mapper”.
It helps you to:

Categorize the assump7ons of your business idea. Are your

assump@ons related to desirability, viability, feasibility or
corporate fit?

Priori7ze the assump7ons of your business idea. Focus your

energies on what really ma]ers! Validate first the important
assump@ons which are easy to answer. Then, move to the
important assump@ons which are difficult to test. Leave the not-
important assump@ons for later.

download the PDF

Mapping out the assump7ons

Step 1 Step 3
Download this PDF and print it on Use 3 vo@ng dots per person to
an A2 sheet of paper. You can also vote the most cri@cal assump@ons.
draw the graph on a flipchart if you Then, select the ones which
can't print. received the most votes. Are these
allocated mainly in the upper
Step 2 sec@on of the graph?
Write down on post-its the
assump@ons of the business Step 4
proposi@on you have in mind. Having priori@zed the most cri@cal
Examples of assump@ons for assump@ons, you can now start
Airbnb in its early days could have valida@ng the most relevant ones
been: guests are not afraid of (aka. the ones that relate to
sleeping in the house of strangers, desirability and viability, and which
hosts are not afraid of damages in are easy to answer) - leaving the
their proper@es, and so on. least important ones for later (life it
too short to waste @me in
irrelevant ac@vi@es).
download the PDF
Conver7ng assump7ons into hypotheses

Once you’ve mapped out the assump@ons around the

problem at hand (or solu@on, or business model, …),
convert the assump@ons into hypotheses.

Assump@on Hypothesis
Anything accepted as true without A hypothesis, in contrast, is a simple,
evidence to back it up. An assump@on is a educated guess for what you expect to
statement that we believe to be true. happen in a given experiment. Hypotheses
should include a cause and effect “if…
then…” statement plus a numeric,
measurable target. It is important to clearly
define your hypotheses with metrics that
are able to guide ac@ons.
Step 3

Choose and design the relevant
experiments to test your
hypotheses
A one-page overview of your experiment

Your turn! Once you have mapped out

assump@ons and hypotheses, you can
select the most suitable experiment(s) to
test and validate (or reject) your
hypotheses.
The “Experiment Execu@on Card” helps you frame your experiments
and focus on what really ma]ers (for instance: it’s crucial to define
the defini@on of “success”, so that you can decide whether or not to
repeat, pivot or proceed.

download the PDF

A one-page overview of your experiment
Step 1 Step 5
Download this PDF and Describe the target Step 8
print it on an A4. audience of the Lastly, amer running the
experiment. experiment, use the
Step 2 result box to indicate
Write down the Step 6 whether you confirmed/
assump@on you want to Outline the goal of your rejected your
test with this experiment. experiment. Describe assump@on. If confirmed,
under which condi@ons you can move on. if
Step 3 the experiment will be rejected, let the evidence
Write down the type of considered successful. guide you in making the
experiment you think is decision whether to run
most suitable to test the Step 7 another experiment, to
assump@on at hand. Sum up the prac@cali@es pivot and review or to
that need to be done to proceed with cau@on (it
Step 4 do the experiment and could give you new
Describe the experiment: structure them on the learnings - it doesn’t
what needs to be tested @meline. necessarily mean you
download the PDF
and how will you do it? have to review your
Pro-Tip Don't forget to concept and solve
sketch your experiment something straight away)

setup!
Ready to go, but no idea where to start?

No problem - we listed here 20 experiments you can use, plus real examples of
how successful startups or corporates used them for valida@on purposes
How to pick the right experiment

Pros and Cons

Advantages and limita@ons
of each experiment.

Tools
Some ready-to-use
services you will find
helpful to get your
experimenta@on started

Currency
These are the metrics you’ll need to measure in
order to validate (or reject) your hypothesis.
These results will reflect the interest/
commitment of your addressed market.
 Kind of experiment
Evalua7ve: the experiment
helps you evaluate a measurable
hypothesis
Genera7ve: the experiment
helps you gather addi@onal
insights and signals

Target audience Perfect to test…

While most of the Different hypotheses Problems: test Solu7on: test the Business Model: test
experiments can be used require different whether the problem desirability of the the viability of the
in any industry, some can experiments. For you iden@fied is solu@on you solu@on you
be only (or more easily) each experiment, we considered designed. designed.
applied to a B2C context. specify whether it is important by your Features: test Pricing: test the
good or not to test: target audience. specific features of pricing model of your
your solu@on. product or service.
1 Feature sor7ng cards

Use sor@ng cards to find

pa]erns that help to
understand user priori@es.
Feature sor7ng cards

Use sor@ng cards to find pa]erns that

help to understand user priori@es.
Feature sor@ng cards are an easy and reliable way to get valuable insights
about how your features should be organized to meet the expecta@ons of
your target group. Start by defining a list of priori@es and then create cards
with clear descrip@ons. Use the cards to provide insight into users’ mental
models and find out what ma]ers most to your customers by having them
sort topics into groups that make sense to them. The key here is to make
the most out of interpre@ng the results by categorizing and iden@fying
pa]erns. Tip: keep the cards below 40 to avoid overwhelming your
par@cipants.
Pros Tools Currency
+ simplicity Op@malSort (unlimited Sa@sfac@on
+ structure version star@ng 166$/ Engagement Target audience Kind
+ focus - pa]erns month) and Usabilitest Time
(free trial) let you create B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
Cons cards and test them online
+ hos@ng a test session with instant result analysis Perfect to test
+ won’t necessarily
correspond to real life Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
behavior
Feature sor7ng cards Example

Hypothesis: which
sensors should a smart-
bed have?
Haelvoet has been an authority in the
produc@on of hospital and nursing home
furniture for more than 80 years. Due to
ageing popula@on, Haelvoet wants to get a
clear view on the essen@als sensors needed Test carried out by Results
in a smart-bed. They used card sor@ng to Haelvoet, producers of The exercise of sor@ng cards
priori@ze the essen@al sensors in in-depth hospital and nursing home during the in-depth
interviews with nurses, care providers and furniture. interviews indicated that the
following three sensors are
purchasing managers.
Metric perceived as being the most
The ranking of desired desired: out-of-bed detec@on,
features scales and automa@c under-
bed light.
Not only
Valida7on.
explore our tools
At www.boardofinnova@on.com/tools
you’ll find a world of free tools, guides
and other resources for the innovators.
2 Picnic in the graveyard

Inves@gate the biggest failures in

your industry and understand the
reasons behind it. What to learn
from the Google Glasses?
Picnic in the graveyard

Inves@gate the biggest failures in your

industry and understand the reasons behind
them. What to learn from the Google Glasses?
This method is not about tes@ng a hypothesis, instead it is about genera@ng ideas.
Use the “picnic in the graveyard” approach to gather informa@on to inform your
thinking and unanswered ques@ons on what has been tried and failed - and why. It
involves contac@ng the people behind unsuccessful ideas that have been tried before
in order to get the true story and learnings from them.

Pros Tools Currency Target audience Kind

+ simplicity Explore old products Engagement
B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ learn from others and old webpages of Past sales
corporates with Archive,
Perfect to test
Cons the @me machine of the
+ unstructured research web. Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Picnic in the graveyard Example
Test carried out by
Vuzix, a New York-based provider of

Hypothesis: how can we AR solu@ons.

Metric
resurrect the promise of Tackling the points of pain Google
Glasses faced.
the Google Glasses?
Results
Vuzix, similarly to other players in the
Vuzix, an American mul@na@onal technology
same AR arena, is overcoming the
firm headquartered in Rockester, New York, flaws of Google Glasses by offering a
has been trying to resurrect the promise of different design and larger display.
the Google Glasses for years. Vuzix is a Other compe@tors are specialising into
supplier of wearable display technology, specific use cases (cycling glasses,
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. sport glasses, game plauorms, …).

Key Takeaway
Keep in mind the principle “either it
already exists, or someone tried
already and failed”. Before launching
your whole self into the development
of a new product or service, look at
your neighbors first, to prevent
yourself from making the same
mistakes.
3 Customer interview

Get out of the building to

ac@vely learn through real and
in-person customer interac@ons.
Customer interview

Get out of the building to ac@vely learn

through real and in-person customer
interac@ons.
Interviews are good for problem or solu@on fit phases and give qualita@ve
customer insights. Use customer interviews to find out if you are
addressing a real need and solving a real problem. Alterna@vely, use these
one-on-one interac@ons to gain insights into if your solu@on actually
resonates with your customers. The key is developing your interview
scripts in a way that elicits customer stories.

Pros Tools Currency

+ depth insights/feedback Trello (free) lets you track Sa@sfac@on
 Target audience Kind
+ speed of set up and analyze your Engagement B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
customer interviews as Time
Cons well as communicate Perfect to test
+ recrui@ng par@cipants research results.
+ measurability Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Customer interview Example

Hypothesis: can Niko

play upon the smart-
home trend?
Niko is the market leader in Belgium in terms
of switchgear. To keep their leading posi@on,
they used customer interviews to generate
insights around the interest of consumers
into smart-home solu@ons.

Test carried out by Results Key Takeaway

Niko, the European reference The interviews gave a be]er Conduct interviews to grasp
in electro-technical solu@ons overview of the relevant meaning and gain a deep
and services. groups to target with smart- understanding of the social/
home technology, their daily living environment of the
Metric life and the specific reasons customers.
The awtudes, mo@va@ons or for certain ac@ons.
experiences that are
highlighted by the
interviewee.
4 Smoke test

Test the resonance of your elevator

pitch quan@ta@vely by capturing
customer demand.
Smoke Test

Test the resonance of your elevator pitch

quan@ta@vely by capturing customer
demand.
Smoke tes@ng allows you to quan@ta@vely gauge whether or not there is any
serious demand for our value proposi@on. This can be done with emails or a
landing page that states your value proposi@on, along with a call to ac@on that
asks the user to commit some form of value to sign up. Based on the % of users
who offer the value, you get a rough signal from the market if the value
proposi@on is in sufficient demand to build a minimal solu@on or if a pivot is
needed.

Pros Tools Currency

+ simplicity Instapage (star@ng 29$/ clicks Target audience Kind
+ speed month) lets you design sign-ups
B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
newsle]ers and landing payment
Cons pages. Five Second
+ requires high amount Perfect to test
Test helps you gather
of users first impressions of your Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
+ doesn’t explain ‘why’ landing page, logo, etc.
Smoke Test Example

Hypothesis: is there a
demand for social-
media-management
solu@ons?
Buffer is an intui@ve Social Media
management plauorm which is today trusted
by brands, businesses, agencies and
individuals to help manage Social Media. Test carried out by Results Key Takeaway
Before developing the actual service, and Buffer, a Social Media The volume of traffic on the If you have an idea, don’t
wri@ng any line of code, the Buffer founders management tool. landing page gave the immediately start building it
wondered if people would have actually founders valida@on for the but try to inves@gate the
desired the product. To test it, they created a Metric solu@on they had in mind. market interest using a
The clicks on the product Addi@onally, they captured a prototype, a MVP or a landing
simple landing page, pitched their product
page and pricing page gave list of contacts of high-value page for the product, AS IF it
and measured interest - as simple as that.
the founders an indica@on of poten@al clients. already existed.
the actual interest in the
product and in the different
pricing models.
5 Genera7ve session

Use genera@ve research as a

qualita@ve approach to look for
clearer signals about the customer.
Genera7ve session
Use genera@ve research as a qualita@ve
approach to look for clearer signals about
the customer.
Genera@ve sessions don’t necessarily start with a hypothesis, but are used to
learn more about your user and their problems, habits and in what context they
operate. For these sessions, it is key to be in the same room with the par@cipant
and focus on open ques@ons that dig deeper into the mo@va@onal drivers of the
audience, while also observing the contextual environment. For this approach,
start by sta@ng your research goals clearly and then ac@vely listen to the
customer’s responses. Following the session, the analysis and synthesis of the
research is just as important - make sure to book @me for that.

Pros Tools Currency

+ informa@ve insights Trello (free) lets you Engagement Target audience Kind
+ medium setup @me track and analyze your Time B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
Cons customer interviews as
+ recruitment well as communicate Perfect to test
+ effort required for research results.
analysis Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
+ not-focused evidence
Genera7ve session Example

Hypothesis: what
factors play a role in the
process of choosing an
educa@onal program?
The University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht
planned to redesign their website. Relevant
user insights were needed in order to make
the website play a role in the process of
choosing an educa@onal program. Test carried out by Results Key Takeaway
The University of Applied By proving the par@cipants Look beyond first impressions
Sciences in Utrecht. with a set of hands-on and get a deep understanding
exercises, they were able to of what your users know, feel
Metric get insight into their decision and dream.
Map all kinds of latent needs making process. Insights that
and desires of the people who would later served as the
are planning to par@cipate in founda@on for the redesign.
an educa@onal program in the
near future.
6 Single-feature MVP

Test your most crucial

assump@ons with a single
feature MVP.
Single-feature MVP

Test your most crucial assump@ons with

a single feature MVP.
Avoid mega-concepts and unclear conclusions by tes@ng a single-feature
Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Some of the most successful concepts
started out with a single, simple feature - think at Google or Dropbox. A
single feature MVP focuses on one aspect of a larger concept. Why doing
so? To have the sta@s@cal guarantee that it’s that specific feature being
validated (and not other ancillary components of the offering).

Target audience Kind

Pros Cons B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ simplicity + mul@ple tests
+ gives focus + adjust assump@ons
Perfect to test
+ easy to explain + not always a signal of
+ speed product-market fit Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Single-feature MVP Example

Swiping lem/right is a Test carried out by Metric Key Takeaway

Your most dependable You can only like (swipe right) If you have one crucial
feature that Tinder wingman Tinder. or dislike (swipe lem) another hypothesis to test, try limit
person. your MVP to the essen@al.
brought into an overly
crowded chat/da@ng
online market.
Tinder, with its 20 billion matches to date (!),
is the world’s most popular app for mee@ng
new people. It’s no mystery its popular UI
design feature of swiping right (like) or lem
(dislike), and the fact - s@ll rather new back
then - that only people who mutually liked
each other could match.
7 Physical prototype

Test and evaluate your possible

solu@on by building a low fidelity
physical prototype for customers
to interact with.
Physical prototype

Test and evaluate your possible solu@on by building

a low fidelity physical prototype for customers to
interact with.
Once you have iden@fied a problem worth solving, turn your collected insights into a tangible
prototype or mockup that can be used to present your poten@al solu@on to a customer. You
may think at car manufacturers, that intensely use various forms of prototyping when designing
a cars, or at Dyson, that notoriously went through 5,127 prototypes for its best-seller cyclonic
vacuum cleaner. But what we’re referring to, here, is the use of prototyping at much earlier
stages: for example, you could prototype a self-service pharmacy by using paper boxes, and by
placing an actor inside the box to “perform” the expected ac@ons.

Pros Tools Currency

+ simplicity Make use of recycled Engagement Target audience Kind
+ speed materials, paper etc. to Time
+ de-risk build a physical B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
representa@on of your
Cons solu@on. Or simply Perfect to test
+ poten@al for biased sketch it out using
Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
responses markers and templates.
8 Wireframe

Test the usability of your digital

products with digital wireframes.
Wireframe

Test the usability of your digital

products with digital wireframes.
Digital wireframe prototypes act as a limited simula@on of your solu@on
idea for the user to interact with. The schema@c ‘blueprint’ acts as a sta@c
visual guide that can help you iden@fy poten@al problems that you may
have not perceived and reveal elements that are not intui@ve to your
users.

Pros Tools Currency

+ simplicity Sketch (star@ng 99$/ Engagement
+ cost effec@veness year) and Balsamiq Time
Target audience Kind
(star@ng 90$/year) are A]en@on
Cons great for wireframes and B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ weaker evidence Invision (freemium) let
you design and test your Perfect to test
digital prototypes.
Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
9 Landing page

Get out of the building (virtually)

by using landing pages to test
your hypotheses against user
expecta@ons and interest.
Landing page

Get out of the building (virtually) by using

landing pages to test your hypotheses
against user expecta@ons and interest.

Amer making sure that users understand your value proposi@on with a
comprehension test, landing pages can be used as stand-alone single pages
where you display your value proposi@on and aim to convert to a sign up via
email or a sale. Start from a hypothesis, clarify your key metric and use your
call to ac@on to test user interest in your value proposi@on.

Pros Tools Currency

+ focus Instapage (star@ng 29$/ Conversion rate (%)
+ speed and simplicity month) and Unbounce Sign-ups Target audience Kind
(star@ng 79$/month) Payments
B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
Cons lets you design landing Clicks
+ cost pages fast and analyze
+ weak evidence
Perfect to test
conversion insights.
+ dependent on Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
hypothesis
10 Explainer videos

Use explainer videos to show how

a service would work.
Explainer videos

Use explainer videos to show how a

service would work.
Create the illusion that your product is real and developed by recording
and edi@ng a ‘real life’ scenario involving the use of your product. This
video can be displayed on your landing page to explain your offering to
customers and influence them to buy or use it. Focus on your script and
storyboard the key message that you want to convey. Use visuals,
mo@on and audio to convey and strengthen the message by informing
and entertaining the user with the who + what + why of your offer.

Pros Tools Currency

+ clarifying Moovly (star@ng 25$/ Clicks Target audience Kind
+ visual month) let you create A]en@on B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ focused explainer videos with
audio clips, whiteboard Perfect to test
Cons anima@on and your own
+ requires @me pictures. Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Explainer videos Example

Hypothesis: is there
demand for Dropbox?
In 2009, a rela@vely unknown startup called
Dropbox launched this explainer video.
Shortly amer the video was launched, this
two-minute explainer was placed on the
dropbox.com homepage, where it was
viewed about 30,000 @mes per day.

Test carried out by Results Key Takeaway

Dropbox With this video, Dropbox Use explainer videos to
managed to illustrate the introduce the world to your
mechanics of the service and service. Make use of a unique
to spark the interest of visual style, create a
millions of poten@al users. compelling narra@ve with
strong metaphors, and keep it
short.
11 Comprehension test

Does your customer understand the

message? Eliminate false nega@ve
biases before tes@ng commitment,
by evalua@ng comprehension.
Comprehension test
Does your customer understand the
message? Eliminate false nega@ve biases
before tes@ng commitment, by evalua@ng
comprehension.
Comprehension tests are simple to run and can usually take less than an hour. The
aim is to test if at least 80% of your customers display a posi@ve conversion in
understanding your message. Sample sizes of your test should generally be around
20 people and don’t need to be target customers: you are tes@ng the understanding

Pros Tools Currency

+ simplicity Kroma@c designed a A]en@on
+ speed simple card to track Comprehension Target audience Kind
+ both qualita@ve and comprehension test Engagement B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
quan@ta@ve ac@vi@es.
Perfect to test
Cons
+ not on target customer Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Comprehension test Example

Hypothesis: do
customers understand
our value proposi@on?

Walmart, the American retail giant, is known

for its powerful value proposi@on “Save
Money. Live Be]er”. In order to come to this
value proposi@on, they tested it by wri@ng
down their value proposi@on in 1-3
sentences, showing this to par@cipants for a
Test carried out by Results
few moments (just enough to read it) and America’s giant retail player By repeatedly performing this
then taking it away and asking the Walmart. test, Walmart narrowed down
par@cipants to explain it in their own words. their value proposi@on to the
Metric exis@ng one.
If the par@cipant explana@on
is roughly comparable to the
one Walmart postulated, they
counted it as a posi@ve result.
If not, it was nega@ve.
12 Imposter Judo

Use a related website/product as

if it were your own. Repackage an
exis@ng product.
Imposter Judo

Use a related website/product as if it

were your own. Repackage an exis@ng
product.
Why build something if it already exists? If a similar idea already exists,
you can use it as a quick and simple way to gather feedback. With
Imposter Judo we leverage the ‘fake it @ll you make it’ rule. This could
mean crea@ng sta@c screenshots or mockups of websites and removing
the compe@tor branding or asking customers to sign-up and give you
feedback on a compe@tors website. This method is par@cularly effec@ve
when selling physical products

Pros Tools Currency

+ simplicity Use snippets of exis@ng clicks Target audience Kind
+ speed web pages. engagement B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
conversion
Cons
Perfect to test
+ high risk for
corporates Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Imposter Judo Example Test carried out by Results Key Takeaway
The popular online shoe and Zappos could validate their Tes@ng your idea doesn’t
clothing retailer Zappos. hypotheses and move to a need to be big! You don’t
more mature stage of need to build a call center or
Metric development. distribu@on center to test
Hypothesis: will people Number of shoes sold in their your hypotheses: instead,
webshop. Customer reviews keep it as simple (and low-
buy shoes online? of their online shopping
experience.
tech) as possible, as Zappos
did with their MVP.

In the early days of Zappos, founder Tony

Shieh made pictures of shoes sold in local
shoe stores and presented them in a web
shop to validate whether people would
have bought shoes online - and would
have been sa@sfied about the experience.
This trick allowed him to have no inventory
at these early stages of development. If
anyone bought shoes from them, they
would have gone to the store, bought the
shoes and mailed them to the customer.
This allowed Zappos to test their idea
quickly and cheaply, before inves@ng in
their own inventory, customer-service,
logis@cs and other opera@ons.
13 Crowdfunding

Use crowdfunding plauorms as a

way to validate an idea by gewng
backers to put money into your
concept before building it.
Crowdfunding

Use crowdfunding plauorms as a way to

validate an idea by gewng backers to put
money into your concept before building
it.
Use the pre-order method of crowdfunding plauorms to run your MVP test
and test your hypothesis about the need for your offering and discover
customer preferences. The idea is to gauge interest, secure backers and only
build once there is sufficient interest by raising your target amount. They key
for these campaigns is to come up with a compelling elevator pitch (usually a
video + strong visuals and infographics) that will convince your target audience

Pros Tools Currency Target audience Kind

+ simplicity Kickstarter, Indiegogo Payment

+ rapid idea valida@on and other crowdfunding Engagement B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ generates cash plauorms
Perfect to test
Cons
+ not as targeted Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Crowdfunding Example Pebble Time was the
fastest funded Kickstarter
project.
Palo Alto-based company Pebble decided to
launch its newest watch, the Pebble Time on
Kickstarter. Less than 48 hours amer launching,
Pebble Time, officially topped the company’s
previous Kickstarter record. Pebble’s IP has now
been acquired by Fitbit.

Metric
The amount of money raised.

Results
Pebble raised $20.3 million from
over 75.000 backers, breaking
records on the Kickstarter site.
The first million$ was raised
within 29 minutes!
14 Pre-sales

Talk to your customers and

gauge their interest by tes@ng
their willingness to pay with pre-
orders.
Pre-sales

Talk to your customers and gauge their

interest by tes@ng their willingness to pay
with pre-orders.
Pre-sales allows you to present your product to poten@al customers and
convince them to pay for it before fully building it. You have two op@ons in front
of you: either installing a “pre-order” bu]on on a landing page, or directly talking
to customers. This second op@on, even tough less scalable, allows for more
qualita@ve insights by seeing customer reac@ons first hand - these might come
in handy to form user personas at a later stage.

Pros Tools Currency

+ direct customer Payment Target audience Kind
interac@ons B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ gain understanding

Perfect to test
Cons
+ Difficult to scale Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
+ Time consuming
Pre-sales Example

Launch a pre-order
page before kicking
off produc@on.
Test carried out by
Oculus VR, the American VR technology Oculus VR
company, omen launches pre-order pages
for its products before kicking off Metric
produc@on. While preordering you The number of pre-orders
exactly know how much the product registered.
costs and on which date it will be
shipped. They offered pre-orders for Key Takeaway
Oculus Rim, Oculus Touch, Oculus Go, Pre-orders allow for:
etc. Clearer es@ma@on of real
demand
Be]er es@ma@on of
produc@on targets
Cash-in
Marke@ng advantages -
sense of community and
exclusivity for the early
adopters
15 Concierge

In-person service for customers

where they know that a human
performs the task.
Concierge

In-person service for customers where they

know that a human performs the task.
This method involves manually performing tasks related to delivering the value of your
offering to your customers. This MVP approach allows you to move with speed and learn
in the process of delivering the intended value of your product or service. Customers are
aware that a human is performing the tasks and the intent is for you to eventually derive
the learnings needed to automate and op@mize this process while avoiding premature
and unnecessary tech. Note: this kind of MVP usually delivers a be]er service than the
final one - therefore, a failed concierge MVP *invalidates* an hypothesis, but a successful
concierge MVP *doesn’t necessarily validate* the hypothesis.

Pros Tools Currency

+ simplicity Manual processes Conversion rate (%)
+ speed Sa@sfac@on Target audience Kind
+ gives focus Engagement
B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
Usage

Cons A]en@on
+ @me consuming Perfect to test
+ labour intensive
Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
Concierge Example
Hypothesis: would women
rent a dress online?
The founders behind “Rent the Runway” wanted to test
their online dress rental business model. Before going
online, they tested an in-person service to female
college students where anyone could try the dress on
before ren@ng them - a much be]er experience than
online rental. If this test wasn’t successful, the online
rental model would have been rejected too.

Test carried out by Results

Jennifer Hyman and The test results showed
Jennifer Fleiss, founders that 34% of women
of Rent the Runway. rented, so they went on
to a valida@ng MVP,
Metric where 5% of 1000
Had no one rented that women on their mailing
night, they would have list rented dresses from
known that online rental an emailed PDF.
was hopeless.
16 Wizard of Oz

Work ‘behind the scenes’ to deliver

the service manually, without huge
infrastructures (but make customers
believe that the infrastructure is
already in place).
Wizard of Oz

Work ‘behind the scenes’ to deliver the

service manually, without huge infrastructures
(but make customers believe that the
infrastructure is already in place).
This method involves manually performing tasks for your customers, while
simula@ng an automated process. Customers are under the impression that
they’re using a finished product and are unaware of the manual mechanisms
working behind the scenes to deliver value. Much like concierge, this might take
much longer than automated processes first, but it allows you to move with
speed with minimal development.

Pros Cons Currency Target audience Kind

+ strong evidence + @me consuming Conversion rate (%)

+ measurability + labour intensive Sa@sfac@on B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ easy to pivot Engagement
Usage Perfect to test

Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing

Wizard of Oz Example
Aardvark used Wizard of Oz
prototyping to design their social
interfaces.
Aardvark, the social Q&A service recently acquired by Google,
used a Wizard of Oz prototype to learn about how their services
concept would have worked without building all the tech before
knowing if it was any good. Aardvark proposed an algorithm
which would find answers to your ques@ons through social media,
but in reality the team was performing the research manually.

Test carried out by Results

Aardvark, a startup that Aardvark used an instant
connects people with messaging system and a
ques@ons with people best- team of people behind the
qualified to answer via a scenes to physically reroute
digital interface over the ques@ons and answers to
internet. the right people. In this way,
they gathered addi@onal
Metric insights and developed their
Efficiency and effec@veness concept without wri@ng one
of their service concept. line of code.
17 Le]er of Intent

Test your hypotheses by asking

prospects to sign a non-binding
le]er of intent to pay for your
solu@on.
Le]er of Intent

Test your hypotheses by asking

prospects to sign a non-binding le]er
of intent to pay for your solu@on.
Le]ers of Intent can be used to validate your assump@ons about your
product by asking customers for currency and note explicitly what they
are willing to give in return for your value proposi@on. People who
clearly have the pain and currently use work arounds will more likely sign
a le]er of intent.

Pros Cons
+ simplicity + weak valida@on
+ speed + non-binding Target audience Kind
+ straight-forward 
 B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ explanatory Currency
Signature
 Perfect to test
Time

Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
18 A/B Tes7ng

A or B? Test both with a

sample of users, then use
the winning version.
A/B Tes7ng

A or B? Test both with a sample of

users, then use the winning version.
More than a specific experiment, A/B Tes@ng is a way of working that
encourages marketeers to test 2 variants (variant A and variant B) of a
certain element, in order to discover which variant performs the best in
maximising a desired outcome (e.g. purchase rate on an e-commerce
plauorm). The elements that can be A/B tested are uncountable: 2
different subject lines for a newsle]er campaign, 2 versions of an
AdWords campaign, 2 pricing schemes for a new service, 2 color
schemes for a landing page, and so forth.

Pros Tools Currency Target audience Kind

+ simplicity Hubspot (star@ng 200$/ Conversion rate (%) B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ measurability month) and Instapage
(star@ng 29$/month) let Perfect to test
Cons you design A/B versions
+ requires high amount of newsle]ers and Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
of users landing pages
A/B Tes7ng Example

Hypothesis: will ‘free

shipping’ trigger more
visitors to buy?
NuFACE is an an@-aging skin care company that
wanted to boost online sales. Analy@cs showed
visitors spending a long @me on the website,
browsing through a variety of products to then be
reluctant to purchase. They decided to offer an Test carried out by Results
extra incen@ve: free shipping for orders above NuFace, an an@-aging skin The test results showed that
$75. care company with an ac@ve when customers were given
online store. the free shipping incen@ve,
orders increased by 90%. In
Metric addi@on to this, the
Sales from customers with company’s Average Order
free shipping incen@ve versus Value (AOV) also rose by
sales from customers without 7.32%.
free shipping incen@ve.
19 App mockup

Create a clickable/“tappable”
prototype of an App or a
digital service
App mockup

Create a clickable/“tappable” prototype

of an App or a digital service
Mul@ple services today let any designer - or even people with (almost) no
design experience - create a prototype of an App, no coding needed. The
advantage: itera@ons and refinements can be tested by users prior to
star@ng development. By presen@ng an app with only simple home page
and sign-up flows, users have the opportunity to experience your ideas
and concepts and give valuable feedback on your mobile applica@on. Using
these behavioral insights can save you @me and money in development.

Pros Tools Currency

+ simplicity UXPin
 Conversion rate (%) Target audience Kind
+ speed InVision
 B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
proto.io

Cons
Perfect to test
+ requires high amount
of users Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing
20 Ad campaign (online)

Use Ad campaigns as a way to

validate the market.
Ad campaign (online)
Use Ad campaigns as a way to validate the
market.
You can use online adver@sing services such as Facebook, Google and LinkedIn
to test your offering with the par@cular target customers you are trying to
reach. With this low-fidelity test, you could gain insights into how much your
customers are willing to pay, the market size, the cost of selling. You could also
see which features or aspects of your offering is most appealing to your target
customers by analysis of click-through-rates and conversions. Addi@onally,
using paid banner ads and keywords can be used to drive traffic from the ads
to your landing page. This allows for more informa@on on what is actually
compelling to your customer.

Pros Tools Currency

Target audience Kind
+ speed + Facebook for Business Conversion rate (%)

+ informa@on quality + Google Adwords Clicks B2C B2B Evalua@ve Genera@ve
+ LinkedIn
Cons Perfect to test
+ price
Problem Solu@on Features Biz Model Pricing