Before committing significant resources to build a product or even a single feature, product managers validate their ideas in the market. Market validation helps determine if your proposed solution addresses a genuine need that enough users care about and are willing to pay for.

Effective market validation includes several approaches:

• Direct outreach to potential customers to discuss the problem and the proposed solution
• Competitive analysis to identify gaps and opportunities in the market
• Low-fidelity prototypes to quickly gather feedback on potential solutions
• Landing pages that gauge interest through sign-ups or pre-orders
• Minimum viable products (MVPs) that test core functionality
• Small-scale pilots with a subset of target users

The key to successful market validation is starting with minimal investment. By testing assumptions early and cheaply, you avoid the costly mistake of building something nobody wants. This applies equally to major new products and individual features within existing products. Many teams waste resources building features that users never adopt because they didn't validate the need first.

Remember that market validation isn't a one-time event but an ongoing process. As you gather feedback and insights, you'll refine both your understanding of the problem and your proposed solution. This iterative cycle helps ensure that when you do build your product or feature, it's aligned with genuine market needs.