How To Validate Business Ideas For Micro SaaS (2 Step Process)

Micro SaaS Validation Doesn’t Have To Be So Hard!

Here’s something seasoned founders understand: most SaaS ideas fail. 

It sucks, but it comes with the territory.

And so rather than avoid it, embrace it like a lover.

This post shows how to fail fast, and fail cheap, in just two steps.

That’s how you get to a validated Micro SaaS idea as efficiently as possible. 

By the end, you’ll know how to:

• validate any app idea you have, and
• build an MVP out of it

For free!

Let’s first address what it means to validate a SaaS idea.

What is Micro SaaS Idea Validation?

To validate your SaaS idea means obtaining evidence of two things:

1. Your audience finds your solution valuable.
2. They’re willing to pay for it.

Keep in mind that validation is not a black and white metric.

Instead, it lies along a spectrum of audience interest in your solution.

You want to find an idea with enough initial interest to further develop.

Eventually, it develops into a profitable micro SaaS and you update your LinkedIn bio to flex.

To validate your idea, you need to clearly communicate it to your audience so they can decide if it’s any good.

This is done via a minimum viable product, or MVP.

Typically, this is where founders build a bare bones version of the final product.

Thing is, that’s technically a prototype, and you don’t actually need one yet!

Micro SaaS MVP VS Prototype

An MVP is whatever you need to validate your idea.

A prototype is an early model of a product created for testing and demonstration.

If you think you need a prototype to validate your micro SaaS idea, we urge you to reconsider. 

Dropbox validated their idea with a short video that got 70 thousand pre-launch signups.

No prototype.

Buffer used a landing page that explain key features and pricing.

No prototype.

These results tell us one thing: An MVP doesn’t have to be a prototype.

Instead, you might just need:

• a landing page
• some marketing, and 
• a way to secure one-on-one user interviews

Right now, all you have are ideas that you need to communicate to an audience.

First, consider monetary cost: most no code app builders cost money; many landing page builders – including our suggestion – are free.

Then think of the bigger consideration – your time.

In the time it takes you to knock out one prototype and test one idea, you could launch ten landing pages and test ten ideas. 

Doesn’t that sound like a quicker route to a validated idea? 

(We’ll just pretend you’re nodding enthusiastically.)

Great, let’s start with Step 1. 

Step 1: The Landing Page

We made a comprehensive guide to building a high-converting app landing page. 

We go over landing page structure and elements you need to include with real-life examples.

Landing pages are all the same. 

The only thing that changes is what they sell.

All you just need is: 

• a landing page template, and 
• a way to customize it to show what you’re selling

For the landing page template, we recommend Hubspot’s CMS Hub Free.

It’s got a ton of templates, an easy to use drag and drop builder, and you get to connect your landing page to Hubspot’s suite of marketing tools for free.

To truly customize it and make it your own, you’ll need assets like:

• Icons
• Mockups
• Screenshots
• Visuals
• Copy

For that, we recommend Uizard.

Uizard is a no-code UI design tool like Figma, but far better for non techs. 

1. It’s very intuitive and user friendly.
2. There’s an AI assistant to suggest copy. 
3. There’re unlimited stock photo options via Pexels integration. 

Between Hubspot and Uizard, you’ll be a lean, mean, landing page making machine.

Next step is driving traffic.

You want to get a 3% opt-in rate.

You could use paid ads, but it obviously stops being free. 

Because you don’t need to drive thousands of people to your landing page just yet, we think you’d do fine promoting your idea and landing page organically on platforms where your target audience congregates, including:

• Reddit
• Quora
• Facebook groups
• LinkedIn Groups
• Twitter
• Medium
• Specific interest forums

Reddit is especially useful.

Crucially, this engagement also helps you work on the second (harder) step. 

Step 2: Market Research Via User Interviews

Two things we want to address: why, and how.

Why user interviews are important when building Micro SaaS

Your landing page is your key tool for conducting market research and testing new hypothesis.

A conventional prototype goes through cycles of user feedback and iteration.

Every cycle better aligns it with what the audience wants – micro SaaS validation in a nutshell.

There’s no reason why that same process can’t be done with a landing page. 

Landing pages include key features – the value proposition of your SaaS. 

Users can tell you:

• what features they love
• what they don’t care about, and 
• what missing features are hurting your product
• what competitors are offering that you’re not

This gives you the chance to add and remove stuff or even pivot to a different focus. 

Plus, instead of weeks to iterate a prototype, a landing page can be edited in a few hours, ready for a new round of testing.

So that’s the why.

How to secure interviews for your Micro SaaS project

We’re skipping your network since it’s pretty obvious and you don’t need help there.

Instead, let’s look at how you pluck strangers from the web.

It starts with those same platforms mentioned before.

• Reddit
• Producthunt
• Indiehackers
• Quora
• Facebook groups
• LinkedIn Groups
• Twitter
• Medium
• Specific interest forums

If you don’t already have a thick face, you’re going to get one.

Post on these sites describing your SaaS and ask members to visit your landing page. 

If you address a real pain point and present a viable solution, it will attract attention. 

From there, you can directly contact users and ask them if they’re free for a feedback session. 

Also, as you drive more traffic to your landing page, your email list will grow. 

Those are people you want to message and offer a healthy discount to. 

So, they give you feedback, and you tweak the landing page.

Here comes a positive feedback loop:

1. You tweak, making the solution more attractive.
2. That attracts more leads
3. More chances for interviewees and feedback.
4. More tweaks, making the the product even more attractive.
5. Rinse and repeat.

That sounds awesome – and it is.

Final Note: Don’t Obsess Over Micro SaaS Validation

Trying to please everyone will take you down an endless rabbit hole. 

There’s only so much feedback you can get before you need to commit to a direction and take some calculated risks.

But by then you have a solid list of necessary features. 

And a list of red-hot leads who will buy come launch day.

Now you pick the right no code app builder and build away.

In fact, at that point, hiring an app developer right out the gate doesn’t seem like such a crazy idea.

How else will you have enough time to craft your perfect LinkedIn Bio?

All the best with your micro SaaS validation, Internet stranger!

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