By Mariana Abdala
In product development, it’s easy for speed to feel like progress. Teams move quickly to build, test, and launch. But I’m here to tell you- velocity without concept validation is wasteful.
I’ve been witness to teams spending months engineering features that customers never asked for, or abandon ideas that could have succeeded if tested differently (or appropriately). A/B tests and Usability tests are super valuable if you’ve got a tight hypothesis and a well-understood problem to solve.
Above all, high-functioning product teams understand that validation does not begin with code. It begins with curiosity. Before building, they seek evidence that an idea is worth pursuing. That discipline separates innovation from iteration.
The Purpose of Validation
Validation is about learning fast enough to avoid the wrong upfront investment, and avoiding launching something that works technically but fails to solve a real problem. The goal is to reduce uncertainty before investing time, talent, and resources. By breaking big assumptions into small experiments, teams turn opinion into fact and intuition into insight.
Start With the Problem, Not the Product.
The first step in validation is clarity about the problem. Too often, teams rush to design solutions before verifying that the problem is actually impacting customers and that it matters enough to solve. Interviews, user observations, and real-world behavioral tracking help uncover what people do, not just what they say. Pattern recognition begins here. Once you see repeatable pain points across different users, you have a foundation worth testing.
Lightweight Validation Techniques
There are many ways to validate an idea without writing a line of code. The key is to test assumptions in layers, moving from low-fidelity to higher-fidelity only when the signal is strong. There are several techniques that I like to encourage product teams to use:
1. Landing Page MVPs
A landing page MVP tests whether your value proposition resonates. It explains the idea as if it already exists, complete with visuals, pricing, or sign-up options. The goal is to measure conversion, do visitors sign up, click, or share. If your messaging cannot generate curiosity or commitment, adding code will not fix the problem. This technique works especially well for new product concepts, pricing tests, or early-market exploration.
2. Prototype Feedback Loops
Clickable prototypes bring ideas to life without full development. Tools like Figma, Miro, or Marvel allow teams to simulate flows, gather feedback, and observe user behavior. Rather than asking users what they think, observe how they interact. Where do they hesitate? What do they click first? Rapid iteration based on these signals prevents teams from over-engineering features that fail simple usability tests.
3. Concierge or Wizard-of-Oz Tests
In these tests, you manually deliver the product experience before automating it. For example, if you are testing an AI scheduling tool, a team member could act as the AI behind the scenes. Users believe they are interacting with a system, but you are observing how they respond and where friction occurs. This approach helps validate demand and expectations before building the underlying technology.
The Role of AI in Validation
AI has accelerated the way teams validate ideas. Large language models can generate prototype copy, mock interfaces, and even simulate customer conversations. AI tools can also analyze interview transcripts, cluster user feedback, and identify recurring themes. This allows teams to run more tests with less effort. However, automation should not replace empathy. AI can surface patterns, but it cannot interpret emotion or context. Human judgment remains essential for deciding which signals matter most.
From Validation to Commitment
Product teams are busy, they are accountable for a lot, and so it’s very difficult to make time for discovery and validation, but it’s critical to the success of your business. You must remind stakeholders and business leaders that concept validation is not a gate to slow you down, It’s actually a guardrail to keep you from building blind and it allows you to build confidence around solutions in a more affordable way. Once you have evidence of real demand and clear problem definition, you can move forward with conviction. The decision to build should feel earned, not assumed. Teams that validate continuously, rather than occasionally, maintain strategic flexibility. They build less but learn more. Even an early stage fledgling startup will benefit from this mindset; I see it in many of our clients and find that it accelerates their time to market and ability to secure funding and paying customers.
The Takeaway
Know that a prototype tested today can save months of rework tomorrow. I like to think of validation not as a phase to complete but as a mindset to maintain among your team members and stakeholders.