¶ Phase Overview
The objective of the Validation Phase is to develop a tangible product concept based on a discovery market opportunity and to test all critical assumptions of that concept in the market in order to learn whether it is viable, iterating towards an investable business case.
These are the chapters of this phase. In each chapter, there are relevant skills and readings. You can start reading from the first page of this phase, or select the content from the table of content below.
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¶ Validation - Table of Content
¶ Concepting
To start the Validation phase, we first need to come up with a strong Product / Service / Venture concept (or multiple), which we will validate in the market through experimentation. This is the Concepting phase, which is creative in nature.
Through different stages, we will create strong concepts:
Opportunity Unpacking: Aligning the Validation team on context and content
How Might We’s: Framing the boundaries of the Solution Space
Idea Generation: Coming up with solution ideas for the problems we framed
Idea Shortlisting: Narrowing down the field of ideas to a manageable level
Concept Cards: Creating comprehensive Product / Service / Venture concepts
Concept Improvement: Challenging and strengthening the concepts
Strategic Business Criteria: Agreeing on how we will make choices
Concept Selection: Choosing which concept(s) to move into Experimentation with
¶ Experiment Design
After we know which solution concept(s) we want to validate, we need to understand the key assumptions and risks within those, formulate precise experiments to tackle those and formulate an experimentation plan to guide the team.
To design and plan experiments, we will go through the following:
Concept Critique: Finding the hidden assumptions and risks in a concept.
Assumption Mapping: Evaluating, scoring, and mapping the assumptions.
Experiment Design & Selection: Finding ways to test hypotheses and deciding on experiments to run.
Interpretation Criteria: Setting how we will evaluate the experiment outcomes.
Experimentation Plan: Batching experiments into sprints to run agile experimentation.
¶ Experimentation
Once we have designed the relevant market experiments that will help us create new knowledge around our assumptions and risks and have compiled a plan to execute them, it is time to create and run those experiments and gather the market data.
For the Experimentation phase, we will run the following:
Experiment Creation: Creating the necessary stimuli to run experiments.
Customer Testing: First-hand experimentation in qualitative customer situations.
Data Collection: Getting to relevant data and structures.
Experiment Refinement: Changing experiments when their design was flawed.
¶ Evaluation
After we have run an experimentation sprint, we should evaluate the experiments and understand the impact of those on our concept validation progress and further experiments.
To evaluate the outcome of an Experimentation sprint, we will go through the following:
Data Review and Processing: Looking at experiment outcome data and turning it into information that can be used for evaluation.
Experiment Scoring: Judging whether experiments validated or invalidated our hypotheses based on interpretation criteria and data.
Concept Score Card: Updating the validation progress of the concept to orient ourselves on how far we already are.
Experimentation Plan Iteration: Updating the plan as we learn more.
¶ Concept Review
Either at the end of our experimentation plan or once we have learned something that very much changes our view on reality and requires a comprehensive review of the concept, we will come to the Concept Review phase, where key decisions regarding the concept are made based on the gathered data.
During Concept Review, we look at the experiment outcomes and learnings and decide:
Iterate: Do we need to adjust the concept or aspects of the concept in tactical (operational/execution-focused) ways?
Pivot: Do we need to adjust the concept or aspects of the concept in strategic (planning/reasoning/vision-focused) ways?
Persevere: Shall we stay with our concept or aspects of our concept as it is / as they are?
Abandon: Do we need to completely abandon our concept?
¶ Concept Strategy
Once we have wrapped up our Experimentation Sprints and have iterated/pivoted the concept into its final stage, we are ready to compile key business, product, and strategy artefacts, which will be vital for the Production of the concept.
To wrap up the Validation and compile all key outcomes, we will look at the following:
Product Vision: Defining the short-term and long-term vision for our offering
MVP Definition: Setting the first version we need to build to appeal to a first set of customers
Business Model Design: Deciding how we will generate revenue
Go-To-Market Strategy: Deciding how we will address and acquire customers
To-Be Customer Journey: Designing the experience of customers with us
Business Model Canvas: Making integrated strategic choices to set a coherent operation
Implementation Roadmap: Defining what will be done, how, in what order by whom
Business Case: Analysing the financial perspective on our concept over time
Pitch Deck: Creating a compelling narrative to explain the concept to stakeholders and investors
¶ Unpacking for Production
After running through the validation phase, it’s time to share the results with different teams across business, product, development, and operation. We unpack all analysis details to bring stakeholders to the same page, decide and align why & what to build, how we collaborate with limited resources, and get it done.
This is a critical preparation before starting the production:
Business Requirements Document: Demonstrating business case, business value, customer insights, product vision & purpose, and validation results
Alignment & Handover for Production: Bringing all teams (business, design, product, development) to the same page on business context and handover necessary knowledge about the product, customers, and other business rationals