Last year I spent the whole day baking my son’s birthday cake. From scratch, because apparently I enjoy making things hard for myself.

He took one polite bite and asked if we had the supermarket one. We did. He had three slices of that one.

This year I just asked him what he wanted first.

Took about thirty seconds for him to tell me, and I bought it for him. Everyone was happy and I got my Saturday back.

We just tend to forget it when we’re excited about giving surprises, much like coming up with a product idea.

And I get it. I’ve done exactly this with a digital product. Spent weeks building something I was proud of, convinced people would love it, then launched it and held my breath.

So eventually I tried something different. Before the product existed, I sent a message to a small group of people I knew would benefit from it.

Told them what it was, what it would do for them, and that if they wanted in at the lowest price it would ever be, they needed to grab it before a specific date. After that, the price was going up.

The first few days were quiet and I thought, okay. This is my answer.

But right before the deadline, they came. Last-minute buyers, one after another.

People I knew, people I’d helped before, people who’d been sitting on the fence and finally decided to move.

By the time the deadline passed, I had real customers and real money. And something I hadn’t had before: proof that people actually wanted what I was making.

Suddenly I wasn’t staring at a blank document wondering if I was wasting my time.

I was delivering on a promise. That is a completely different energy.

So if you have a digital product idea sitting in your head right now, here are 3 ways to validate it before you spend a single hour building it.

1. The Presell

Offer it before it exists at a founder’s price with a real deadline. The price genuinely goes up after that date.

If people buy, you start creating. If nobody buys after you’ve genuinely put the offer in front of the right people, that is important information too.

Without a deadline, people say “maybe later” forever. With one, they either commit or they don’t. Either way, you have a real answer.

2. The Conversation Before the Creation

Before you write a single word of your product, talk to 5 to 10 people in your ideal audience. Not to pitch them. To listen.

Ask them what they’re stuck on. What they’ve already tried that didn’t work. What they would pay to have solved tomorrow.

You’ll start hearing the same words, the same frustrations, the same “I just wish someone would…” over and over. That is your sales page writing itself.

If you can’t find 5 people willing to have that conversation with you, that’s your validation right there.

3. The Page With No Product

Build a simple opt-in page that describes your product. What it is, who it’s for, what it will do.

Have a “notify me when it launches” button on on your website instead of a buy button.

Then send some traffic to it. Your Pinterest, your email list, a few posts. Whatever you have access to right now.

If people sign up, they want what you’re describing. If nobody opts in after a genuine push, adjust the offer or the audience before you’ve lost months building the wrong thing.

The product I presold? I delivered it on the exact day I’d promised.

From day one I knew people were waiting for it. That made every hour I spent building it feel worthwhile.

Ask first, build second.

If you’re still figuring out what to create in the first place, I put together a list of 7 digital product ideas you can actually build and sell in a weekend.

Worth a read before you decide what to validate.

I've been neck deep on figuring out Pinterest latest update that sent all my traffic downwards for one of by blogs. Working to get them back up again.

If you are interested to see what I'm doing to get it back up, I will be sharing it soon.

Marilyn

P.S. In case you missed the last email, the Product Idea Validation Worksheet walks you through all three of these steps, including how to write your presell message and what to do if nobody cares the first time. Start validating your idea now.