Guide to Validate Your SaaS Business Idea
This Friday ->UI + UX: web design simply explained by Luca Panzarella [4 min reading]
On Startup Salad I break down a business book’s key takeaways in a simple, digestible format, just like a good salad!
Hey, it’s Fede!
We've already discussed a universal strategy to validate a business idea in the past.
However, SaaS (Software as a Service) projects are a bit different. Most ideas sound good in theory, but at the early stages, creating an effective survey is really tricky.
That's why I decided to write a guide to help validate SaaS projects quickly and smartly.
The guide consists of two main steps:
Create and publish an online platform that previews the product you want to develop
Run an online marketing campaign to attract people to the platform and collect their emails/feedback
Today, let's focus on step one and see how to do it right.
Today's book: UI + UX: web design simply explained by Luca Panzarella
From this book, I'll take and share key takeaways that will help you create the platform mockup.
You can also find an overview of this strategy here:
Let’s start!
Pssst: every time you see a🥗 it means the takeaway is very hot!
The SaaS Validation Strategy
The idea is to validate your business idea with a strategy that helps you avoid developing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), which can cost you a lot of time, money, and energy.
Here’s the strategy:
Create a Public Platform
Build a public mockup platform that presents what you want to develop for your startup. It’s important to make the platform seem almost ready and available, even though, it’s only an user interface at this point. For this task, some UX/UI design skills are needed. But don’t worry, I will explain them in the next steps.Share the Link and Run an Ad Campaign
You can send the platform link to potential future clients (if you know any) and run an online advertising campaign to attract more clients. The campaign should last 1 to 2 weeks. 🥗Collect Emails
Once users land on the platform, ensure they leave at least their email. This will help you build a mailing list, which, based on its length, will give you an idea of how many people are interested. You can follow up with them later.
UX of the mockup platform
Every object around us has a UX (User Experience) study that makes it simple to use.
For something like a cup, this is relatively easy (in theory). However, for a website, it requires more thoughtful design and planning.
Here’s how to proceed:
A) Identify future user (the client) variables to keep in mind:
Write down what your startup does and its USP (unique selling proposition). The mockup platform will be designed around this.
What device will users use to access the platform (desktop, mobile, tablet)?
Will they use it in a calm or hectic situation (e.g., managing a restaurant)? It’s important to know the user’s emotions.
Identify your personas (two target users with their characteristics) to understand your audience.
Think about the journey from landing on the platform via an ad to submitting their email. This transition is key to building the mockup, and it’s called the customer journey.
B) Create the mockup platform:
Use Figma and explore ready-made templates for inspiration: Figma Templates. 🥗
In 3 seconds, users should know what service is offered and where to find the call-to-action button. 🥗
Add a support chat to boost loyalty.
Avoid long descriptions. At this stage, you don’t know all the details of your future product yet, and long text may cause confusion.
Include a “limited launch” offer to encourage sign-ups, but be careful with what you promise.🥗
Avoid using photos or material protected by copyright to prevent potential fines.
Keep everything on one page, avoiding complex sitemaps and customer journeys. The goal is to keep the process fast and easy for users.
UI of the mockup platform and Publication
Ok, now that you have a clear understanding of UX, it’s time to talk about UI (User Interface).
I’ll be honest, for the validation test we’re doing, the whole UI aspect, such as colors, fonts, and images, important for building customer trust in the platform, matters much less at this stage compared to when you’re working on the actual final product.🥗
Here, we just want to validate the idea and do it quickly, so I strongly recommend exploiting most of the UI elements available in Figma’s templates. They won’t be perfect, but in most situations, they’ll save you a lot of time.
Now you can export the design from Figma and create the website using various online tools specifically built to make your life easier. One thing to keep in mind is to make sure the plugin for collecting user emails works properly.
Once that’s set up, you can launch your campaign and see how many users actually like your mockup platform and leave their emails, indicating their interest. This will give you a first idea of whether the concept meets a real need or not.
If you'd like me to write an article on how to run online ad campaigns, let me know below in the poll!
The guidelines you need to build your startup:
See you next Friday,
Federico Lorenzon