What is your method to test the product-market fit at an early stage product idea?

I reach out to people on LinkedIn. People are remarkably generous with their time if you approach them in the right way. I pay for Sales Navigator and send InMails, customized to each person. You can usually find the right people by watching their comments on a given niche. I'd say I get a 20-40% hit rate, show them my wireframes, and ask if it's something they'd be willing to pay for. Be transparent, honest, and genuine, and you should have pretty good results.

I think the first step should be talking to potential customers and understanding their problems very well, then evaluating the product idea and whether it can solve the problem or not. After that, you can create a landing page and let them join your waitlist. If there are a lot of people joining your waitlist, it is a good sign of a product-market fit. Then, create your MVP and let them use it :) Good luck

Most people tend to build products first assuming there is a need for it. But validating an idea/product also includes validating your reach for the target audience. If you have 100K audience talking about ecommerce and then you build a ecommerce extension, you have a easy reach. But someone without 100K audience, for the same product, its extremely tough to market. So, I believe people also must create a validation around reaching to target audience. I usually write at Micro SaaS Ideas https://microsaasidea.com around this and also we have a community of builders at Micro SaaS HQ https://microsaashq.com Some pointers, 1/ Instead of creating products, create a Landing page and create a waitlist 2/ Get on a call and talk to users if they are willing to pay 3/ Built MVPs/Prototypes/Design screens and get iterative feedback by posting to communities like IH, Reddit, Micro SaaS HQ etc and build traction 4/ Launch on PH, Betalist etc. 5/ This should give you roughly 50 people on waitlist to get started. Hope that helps.

The best way to test the product-market fit at an early stage is to talk to potential customers. If you can find a segment of customers interested in what you offer, then you have a good shot at getting them to buy your product. The problem with focusing on customers at the early stages is that they are not ready to buy yet. There are other issues to consider, such as whether you have a product ready. In any case, it is important to find early adopters and get them to try your product. This will help you get product-market fit with a small group of customers!

Get users/customers, see how they use the product and if they value it. Roll out MVPs -> test -> iterate

Validation is a continuous process until you become a Unicorn and then run it aground :P Inward out and Outward In Approach 1. Inward Out - Your idea validation a. A good approach I have taken is looking at existing data for indications of stated or latent problems. That gives a direction inward out. If you don't have access to specific data, get industry data or an insider to do some research for you. Look at competition, yes those exist. Look better. b. Talk to few people who already work around the problem area, maybe a competitors employee, just ask open ended questions, around your problem area. They have a lot of share. Often you may discover a far bigger problem to solve or a better solution than you thought possible. Maybe even a collaborator or your first few customers. Don't skip this. 2. Outward In- Confirming the problem first a. Speak to people most likely to experience the problem first hand in an organisation. For consumer products, definitely speak to atleast 30 customers and hear their problems. Ask them how do they imagine it to be solved. That would help you understand customer expectations. If its a large SAAS type product meant for businesses, besides the actual User, speak to procurement and finance guys too to hear their version of the problem. If they are unaware, may mean the problem is not severe enough to have been reported internally and when you go with a solution, they will be shocked to hear that its even a problem! b. If your problem is not stated, probe and ask about the problem area you are solving, don't give solutions. If they don't seem to care about your problem, you know what to do. Drop it and pick the most frequently stated problem. Go back to step a. c. confirm the scale, frequency and severity of the problem. Do both and reconcile what emerges. There can be some deviation, accept the outcome and move to next step.