Here’s why: people usually want to be polite. When you share an idea, they say things like, “That’s interesting” or “Sure, I’d try it.” It sounds encouraging, but it doesn’t show real commitment.

To get honest answers, you need a different kind of conversation—one that reveals whether people truly see value. This guide will show you a simple way to do that.

💡

Key Takeaways

Use a Funnel, Not a Net: A great product validation process is a funnel. It starts wide with a low-friction survey to find the signal, then goes deep with a handful of high-value interviews to find the story.

Problem First, Always: The most critical step is to gain a deep, empathetic understanding of the user's problem before you ever show them your solution.

Synthesize Systematically: The magic is not in the interview notes; it's in the synthesis. Use a structured process to turn messy qualitative feedback into a clear, confident " go/no-go " decision.

🎧 Prefer to Listen or Watch?

🚗 On the go? You can also find the episode on Spotify.

1) Product Validation Process: The Survey

A lot of teams just talk to the first few people who say yes, but that can give shallow feedback. A quick, focused survey helps you spot the most valuable use cases for your roadmap (”the what”) and your most promising users (”the who”).

Key questions for your survey

Email

Without it, you can't follow up or know which groups care about which ideas.

Please core the following use cases.

List your top X use cases. This helps triage top ideas fast. Avoid too many use cases or response rates drop.

💡

Tip: Use a simple scale

Use a simple 1-3 scale tied to action, like "1 - Not a Priority," "2 - Nice to have," "3 - Top 3 Priority." This forces clear choices and is easier to answer. You can limit “3” selections in your form settings.

Choose one use case from the above you'd most want to improve. What steps do you take now to complete it?

This helps us understand what they do today to address the problem, giving us hints about why it’s a painful process for them.

What are the top 1–2 challenges you’ve been trying to solve but haven’t cracked yet?

This helps us understand what they most struggle with in their workflow, helping us understand what our feature must address.

(Optional) If you had a magic wand, what skills or support would you want?

This helps surface new ideas or challenges.

(Optional) Want to stay updated on new opportunities, feedback, and ways to share your ideas? [Y/N]

This gives you an early group you can reach out to for feedback through both sync (eg: interviews) or async (chat, text, or email) methods.

For more tips on survey design, check out Voice of Customer Survey.

💡

Short on time?

Do the survey, then interview a Raving Fan to confirm the problem and then an Executive Sponsor to confirm support. The next section shows you how to do those interviews.

2) Product Validation Process: The Interview

Once your survey shows which users are feeling the most pain and open to talking, the next step is having focused conversations to understand “the why” behind their selections.

Problem Discovery

Your goal is to understand and “fall in love” with their problem, not your solution.

Key questions (10-15 minutes)

The Challenge

Question: “What are the top 1–2 challenges you’ve been trying to solve but haven’t cracked yet?”

Why it works: It gets them to focus on what really matters by asking them to pick the single toughest problem that is top of mind by focusing on things they’re actively trying to solve.

The Dream Outcome

The Script: "If tools weren’t an issue, what would a perfect outcome for this look like?”

Why it works: It helps you understand their ideal future state without being tied to any one solution.

The Consequence

The Script: "What does this gap actually cost you—in time, money, or stress?”

Why it works: It shows the real impact so you can connect their frustration to tangible business costs.

💡

Three tips to make your interviews more effective

TIP: Use an Interview Capture Sheet.

A common challenge is scattered customer notes that make insights hard to find, taking time away from real work.

To fix this, a simple spreadsheet with a column for each key question lets you drop notes in easily while reminding you what to ask.

TIP: Turn on interview transcripts for your calls.

You can’t always jot things down in the moment.

A transcript captures everything so you don’t miss details. Review it right after the call and update your sheet while it’s fresh. Waiting too long makes it feel like a bigger task than it is.

TIP: Use your judgment and experiment.

The questions are a guide, not a rulebook.

This is still a conversation, so listen closely and build rapport instead of rushing to the next question.

Feel free to explore different questions or orders. For example, if the interviewee has already done a great job answering any of these questions in the survey, you don’t need to rehash them. Or maybe you feel through experience it’s better to start with Dream Outcome than Challenge — Experiment!

Stay open and curious—sometimes people share unexpected insights that matter most. If you run out of time, suggest a follow‑up.

Solution Testing

Now that you have a deeper understanding of the problem and its root causes, introduce your solution.

Key questions (10-15 minutes)

💡

What should you share? Making the wrong choice here can bomb your project.

Don’t overpromise: Before you meet with a user, have a quick 15‑minute check-in with your engineering lead or implementation partner. It’s a gut check on whether your “dream outcome” score well on being lightweight and highly certain solution. That ensures you don’t set up your engineering team and future users up for disappointment.

Tell a story: In your solution interview, tell a simple story that shows the problem, the solution, and a few user story examples (see PRD here for an example). A clear story helps people imagine how your idea works faster. Keep technical details light—only cover the biggest risks or costs to see if you can cut them and move faster.

When the time is right, share a mockup. Once the problem and solution feel aligned, you can share a (clickable) mockup or demo. That usually comes later, since they take more time to build. If you’re confident and have the time before your first conversation, you can share one after the story. I’d still start with the story so it’s clear why your idea matters before showing the interface.

Column: The "Comprehension” Test

Purpose: Before you can know if they want your solution, you must first know if they understand your solution. The first step is a simple "copy test" to ensure your core message is landing clearly.

The Process

Expose Briefly: Show your solution narrative to a user for only 10-30 seconds.

Hide & Question: Remove the text and ask: "In your own words, what was that about?"

Listen for the Gaps: Note their exact wording.

Are they repeating the key phrases?
Where are they struggling?

(Optional) Based on where they’re struggling, modify your message (it usually takes 1-2 tries) to enable full understanding.

For more on this strategy, check out Copy Testing to validate whether your message is clear and is landing.

Column: The "Adoption" Test

Purpose: Polite interest can trick us into building something no one really needs. The goal here is to move past polite words and test for real commitment.

The Key Interview Step: From 1-5, what’s the likelihood you would do [Call to Action — toggle for advice]?

💡

What call to action should I use? Toggle for a simple way to make a clear ask that fits your business and product stage

If you’re early in the process, start with smaller asks that give you evidence and help shape the solution.

Picture it as climbing a ladder of commitment—each step builds trust before you move higher. But trying to climb too fast might make you fall off the ladder.

Early Concept	Developed Concept
The Ask: Commitment of Time or Reputation "How’s a 30-minute follow-up session next week to…” This can include: • workshopping the PRD • providing feedback on a demo • actively champion the purchase by your team • referral to other potential customers	The Ask: Commitment of Money "How willing are you to…?" This can include: • a preorder • conditionally-refundable deposit

The Follow-Up: Use a simple 1–5 scale to hear their intent, but the real value is in your follow-up questions.

If they say 4 or 5: "Awesome! What’s the most important thing we’d need to nail for it to be a true 5/5—or even a ‘10/5’ home run for you?"

If they say 3 or below: "Thanks for being honest. What’s the biggest reason for your hesitation?”

If there’s time: "What’s the biggest green flag or exciting part of what we shared?"

The information you get here will be very helpful to understand what should or should not in your feature.

3) Product Validation Process: The Decision

The final step is to turn your raw interview notes into a clear, confident, and defensible strategic decision.

Key steps to synthesize

Step: Tag Your Qualitative Data

The Goal: To turn your messy qualitative notes into structured, quantitative data.

The Process: After your interviews, you will go through your notes. "Tag" them using a simple, mutually exclusive set of categories in a dropdown menu (e.g., for the "Top Unmet Need," your tags might be "Time Savings," "Error Reduction").

💡

TIP: Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good

The process of tagging and pivoting is a powerful tool to help you see the patterns, but it is often a messy, iterative process. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good. Trust your intuition and look for the "aha!" moments that turn data into a real story.

(Please reach out if you’re interested in proven ai-assisted tools and prompts I use to make this process easier.)

Step: Summarize with a Pivot Table

The Goal: To make a final, data-driven recommendation.

The Process: You will use a simple pivot table to count the tags from the previous column. This will instantly show you which "unmet need" is the most prevalent.

Step: Update your strategic roadmap with your insights

Did your understanding of key items change? Update the scores and notes. Make sure the problem and solution are framed as clearly as possible.

💡

Need more instructions? Check out this piece that walks through a tagging and synthesis example.

When Not to Use This Product Validation Process

This product validation process is a strong way to test big, high-stakes ideas when you need confidence in the outcome.

A lighter approach works better in these situations.

The Decision is Low-Risk: For a small, easily reversible feature change (like add a small improvement), a simple A/B test, for instance, is faster and more effective.

You Already Have a "Smoking Gun": If you have overwhelming objective data (e.g., 50% of users are dropping off at a specific step in your funnel), the problem is already validated. You can move straight to solution brainstorming with your implementers (like your engineering lead).

FAQ on the Product Validation Process

What is a product validation process?

A product validation process is a series of steps used to test a new product or feature idea with real users before it is built. The goal is to gather evidence to reduce the risk of building something nobody wants.

What are the key stages of product validation?

The key stages are: 1) Validating the problem to ensure it's a real and painful one for a specific audience, and 2) Validating the solution to ensure your proposed product is a desirable and viable way to solve that problem.

How do you validate a product idea with no money?

The Agile Feedback Funnel is a perfect method. A "Micro-Feedback" Survey can be run for free with a Google Form. "Problem/Solution Interviews" can be done over free video calls. These lean methods allow you to gather a massive amount of high-quality evidence with a budget of zero.

Put the Framework into Action

For leaders who want proven, DIY strategic planning tools adapted from my work with Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the State of California, and high-growth startups and nonprofits.

💡

Innovation Insights

Gallery view

Value Proposition Design Template

Clarify messages to boost sales.

Agile Product Roadmap Template

Build what sells and keeps customers.

Strategic Plan Template

Focus boldly to surpass big goals.

Board Retreat Agenda Template

Turn your board into champions.

Feeling Overwhelmed? Here's How to Prioritize Strategic Initiatives Problem Statement Worksheet: 30 Minute Exercise to Clarity

Dan Wu, JD/PhD

The Product Validation Process: From Idea to Evidence

The Product Validation Process: Three Steps to Tell Real Signal from Noise