How to Validate Product Demand in Lean Teams

In 2025, entrepreneurs who can't spot fake product-market fit with AI will get crushed by those who can. These 5 prompts will tell you the truth: We grew Quest Nutrition by 57,000% in 3 years because we hit real product-market fit (PMF). People were literally fighting over our protein bars. But before that? I wasted years building products nobody wanted. Here are the exact prompts I wish I had back then: 1/ Problem Validation Prompt: "I've uploaded 10 customer interviews about [problem]. Analyze their responses for: - Are they describing genuine pain or just mild inconvenience? - How much time/money do they currently spend trying to solve this? - What words do they use when describing the problem vs my words? - Rate the urgency level 1-10 with specific evidence - Are they being polite or actually desperate for a solution? Be brutally honest. If this isn't a real problem, tell me." 2/ Market Reality Check: "I'm targeting [specific market] with [solution]. Research and tell me: - How many people in this market are actively spending money on solutions today? - What's the evidence they'll pay for a better solution vs just dealing with the problem? - Are there successful companies already making money here? - What's the realistic addressable market, not the inflated TAM everyone quotes? Don't sugarcoat this. I need the truth." 3/ Competitive Advantage Analysis: "Here's my solution: [description]. Here are my top 5 competitors: [list]. Analyze honestly: - Is my differentiation real or just marketing fluff? - Can competitors copy my advantage in 6 months? - Am I 10x better or just 10% different? - What would it take for me to become irrelevant? - Based on this analysis, do I actually have a defensible business?" 4/ Pricing Reality Test: "My product costs $[X]. My target customers currently pay $[Y] for alternatives. Tell me: - Am I pricing based on my costs or customer value? - What's the maximum price customers would pay before saying no? - How does my price compare to the pain level I'm solving? - Will customers switch from free/cheap alternatives for this price? - What pricing model would maximize both adoption and revenue?" 5/ Growth Signal Detection: "Here's my business data: [upload metrics, customer feedback, usage patterns]. Analyze for real product-market fit signals: - Are customers using this more over time or less? - Are they referring others without me asking? - How hard am I working to get each sale? - Are customers paying quickly or negotiating heavily? - What percentage would be upset if I shut down tomorrow? Rate my PMF on a scale of 1-10 with specific evidence." Most founders ask these questions too late. By then, they've wasted months building the wrong thing. Use these prompts before you build. Not after. Come to my free AI masterclass and I'll show you how to launch your business fast with AI - even if you're not a "techie": https://buff.ly/MDF1215

Imagine spending months building a product, only to hear crickets at launch. 😱 Before coding, ask yourself: “𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘐 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴?” I once stopped a founder who wanted us to develop his product from diving into development too soon: “𝘎𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵.” So, instead of us jumping directly into coding, He tested the idea with a 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 & 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 and discovered critical tweaks that saved months of effort. 🔥 𝟲 𝗪𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗠𝗩𝗣 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆: ✅ 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 - Skip assumptions. Five real conversations reveal more than weeks of guesswork. ✅ 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 – Create a simple page & see if people sign up. Buffer’s founder validated demand this way! ✅ 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼 𝗩𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲 – Show value before building. Dropbox’s MVP was just a 3-min video—75K signups followed! ✅ “𝗪𝗶𝘇𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗢𝘇” 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 – Manually deliver the service while users think it’s automated. If they love it, build later. ✅ 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝘆 – Pre-orders, deposits, or dummy “Buy Now” buttons reveal real demand. ✅ 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 & 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 – If people actively seek solutions but remain unsatisfied, you’ve found a gap. 🎯 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲: Set a validation benchmark. Example: “20%+ 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯-𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 = 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘦𝘥.” 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 – 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗩𝗣 𝘂𝗽𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁?  Share your best hacks! Your tip could save someone from building something nobody wants. 💡🚀

The best product validation isn't a landing page, email list, or "coffee chats" - it's actual purchase commitments. Here's what I do differently now: Before writing a single line of code, I create a compelling sales deck and start reaching out to potential customers. The goal? Getting 3 paid pilot commitments based on the deck alone. Someone recently asked me: "But what if people are ready to buy and you haven't built it yet?" I smiled because it reminded me of my past self, worried about the same thing. But here's the reality I've learned: Having customers eager to pay for a product you haven't built is a *fantastic* problem to have. It's infinitely better than the alternative - spending months building something only to discover nobody wants to pay for it. This approach completely transformed how we build products: - It forces us to focus on value proposition first - It ensures we're solving real, painful problems - It creates urgency and accountability in development - Most importantly, it gives us confidence before investing significant resources When you have customers ready to pay before you have a product, you're not just validating demand - you're getting a masterclass in exactly what needs to be built.

We built the perfect product. Nobody wanted it. Ouch. That stings, right? But it's a pain many tech leaders know all too well. Our grand vision? Shattered. Our carefully crafted features? Crickets Yet in that moment of failure, we stumbled upon an unconventional (yet effective) approach to true product-market fit. Here's the unconventional playbook we wish we'd had from day one: 𝗕𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿 Dive into customer struggles. Get your hands dirty. Pro tip: Shadow users like a ninja. 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁 Pitch your idea before writing a line of code. Create a landing page. Run ads. See who bites. 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 Forget page views. Focus on real user value. Track how people actually use your stuff. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 Build WITH your audience, not just FOR them. Host workshops. Create user forums. Get messy together. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 What are people really trying to do? Map customer journeys. Align your product to their goals. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧? - 42% of startups fail due to misalignment with market needs (CB Insights). - Pivoting strategically leads to 2.5x more funding and 3.6x faster user growth (Startup Genome) - Premature scaling without product-market fit increases failure rates by 70% (Startup Genome) So, pause. Reflect. Are you solving a real problem, or just adding to the noise? Slow down to speed up. Validate ruthlessly. Let the market guide you. What's one assumption about your market you haven't truly tested? How can you validate (or invalidate) it this week? Share your insights. 👇

Recently we sent out a simple survey to O2 Hydration's customers that is transforming our business more than anything has since Covid. Here's the stupid-simple method we used. 1️⃣ Send a survey to everyone who has repeat purchased your product in the last 12 months 2️⃣ Ask demographic questions to help you get a better idea of who they are. We asked, age, gender, occupation, and if they have kids 3️⃣ Ask their consumption frequency of your product. We did daily, 4-6x/wk, 2-3x/wk, 1x/wk, 2-3x/month, monthly, or almost never 4️⃣ Ask them this very important question: if your product went away, would they be very disappointed, somewhat disappointed, or not at all disappointed. If 40% or more say they'd be very disappointed, you've got product/market fit with that group of people 5️⃣ As a follow up to the above question, ask them why they answered that way 6️⃣ Last, ask what you could do to improve your product for them These are the core questions, and you can build on them as you see fit, but don't overcomplicate it or make it too long - people will drop off. Now, here's where the magic happens. Segment the responses by those that indicated they'd be "very disappointed" if your product went away. These are the people you need to build your business around. The demographic questions allow you to get a better grasp of who they are. But now you can dig into their consumption habits and, most importantly, why they love your product (question 5). Reorient your marketing around this group, and use the language they used in their survey results to explain your product's benefits. For O2, our core customer had shifted from a young 20s/30s dude to a 35-55 y/o busy mom, often a teacher or a nurse. This shift happened right under my nose, and without this survey I would have continued orienting my marketing toward the wrong consumer group 🤯 Pro-tip: explore the "somewhat disappointed" people's results to determine what you could do to improve for them (question 6) in an effort to move more of them from the "somewhat" group to the "very" group (product/market fit). Trash the "not at disappointed" results - they're dead to you 👀 If under 40% of your customers indicated they'd be very disappointed if your product went away, you've got work to do. If over 40%, you probably have work to do. Either way, now you know you're working on the right things for the right people. BONUS: If you want to get a better idea of who your competitors really are, and where you should be merchandised in the store, ask what products they'd go back to using if yours went away. Let me know if you have any questions, now or after this exercise. I love this stuff.

Just because you have a waitlist of excited customers Doesn't mean they'll ever buy your product. I learned this while watching startups burn millions of investment... A lot of smart founders, I know started chasing compliments instead of contracts. Let me explain: Everyone says yes in a customer interview. 'Great idea!' 'We need this!' 'Keep us updated!' 'Add us to the waitlist!' But here's the truth: Interest is free. Budgets aren't. The moment you ask for money, everything changes: Those urgent needs become 'maybe next quarter.' So here's what actually works: Don't ask for feedback. Ask for a check. Don't request a meeting. Request a commitment. Don't build a waitlist. Build a customer list. The best validation question is 'If I build this exactly as described, will you pay for it today?' 95% of customer interest will disappear 4% will hesitate 1% will say yes That 1% is your real market. That's who you build for. That's how you start. Because one customer with a contract is worth more than a thousand with interest. Products are validated by credit cards Not compliments. Stop counting feedback. Start counting revenue. Your bank account doesn't care how many people love your product. It only matters how many people are paying for your product. Like and share with a founder who needs to hear this. #StartupAdvice #ProductMarketFit #Growth"

I used to think product-market fit came after launch. A 100K mistake showed me it didn’t __ At the first SaaS company I worked at, we floated a new service. Something we 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 the market needed. Everyone we spoke to loved it: “This is brilliant.” “Exactly what we’ve been looking for.” “Let me know when it’s live—I’d buy this.” So 𝘄𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗶𝘁. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁. 𝗪𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗹𝘀. 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗻 — 𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. Crickets. No signature. No feedback. No Sales. This internal product never sold, never scaled, and never closed a single deal. That mistake changed how I think about business: 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗮𝘀𝗺 ≠ 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. A signed contract does. Now, 𝗜’𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘁, staff it, or try to scale it, 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝘀. Instead, bring prospects and customers 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 of a new product’s lifecycle. Define it 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 them. Build it 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 them. And sell 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲. That way, you’ll never miss the market. Why does this matter? Because 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 pitch a new idea and 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁, polite interest disappears. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝘀 𝘂𝗽. So if you're testing a new idea: 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱. This way, you're not guessing what the market wants—you’re building 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁, which helps ensure you're solving a problem that matters 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸. Validation isn’t what people 𝙨𝙖𝙮 — it’s what they’re willing to 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿.