Ask HN: Concept Testing

3 points by jcnnghm 16y ago ↗ HN

Does anyone have some good, real world advice on testing a concept? I thought I had read about a service that you can point a domain name at, that will allow you to construct some quick copy, a simple survey, a contact form, and a mailing list so that you can gauge a market before you build anything. Does a service like that actually exist, or am I imagining it? What do you all do to test a market before you build something?

2 comments

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hga 16y ago ↗

This sounds like an awfully passive approach.

Why would someone even go to the site, let alone spend their valuable time filling out a survey? And why trust what they say, will a survey produce "Revealed Preferences" (as I think the term goes)?

I'd suggest reading up on Steve Blank's Customer Development approach (I sure wish it had been around back when I was working for various ultimately unsuccessful startups).

limedaring 16y ago ↗

This sounds to me like the 2nd step in testing a concept; I've heard of people spending money on various ads on Adwords that all point to a basic website, and then see which ad generated the most click-throughs (therefore, that is the superior product). All this tests is a name and the description and through that, really basic interest.