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Perhaps the most fascinating part (to me at least) in the article was his second step - he knowingly and purposefully created a vaporware product and took order
by crsv 8y ago
Perhaps the most fascinating part (to me at least) in the article was his second step - he knowingly and purposefully created a vaporware product and took orders for it. He refunded the money from the customers, but used this as a validation step.
I'm not sure if there's a moral judgement to be made here that's meaningful, but it's an interesting approach to product validation. I feel like we see this approach with Kickstarter style approaches, but without the refund step (and without ultimately delivering the product), but this idea of getting transactions and refunding them to validate interest is... well it feels a bit off-putting(?), but interesting none the less.
- faitswulff 8y agoI've heard this called shadow testing, and it's a fairly common trick.
- scoot 8y agoThis approach was popularized (even if not pioneered - not sure who came up with the idea originally) by Tim Ferris in the book "The 4-Hour Workweek". He stopped short of actually accepting payment though, and took an attempt to purchase as validation.
- jambo 8y agoIt's called "dry testing", and the FTC might come after you if you're not clear about what you're doing https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/advertising-faqs-guide-small-business https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/adv...