Before building it, test if anyone wants it
Make something people want
In 2007, Drew Houston had the idea for Dropbox, a cloud storage service that syncs files across devices. However, he faced a challenge. Building it would take months and similar services had failed. Investors were doubtful. Drew needed proof that Dropbox was a sound idea without writing code. So he made a 3-minute video simulating how Dropbox would work, dragging and dropping files that synced automatically. It wasn’t a prototype, but a pretotype: a fake version of the experience. He posted the video on Hacker News. Within 24 hours, 75,000 people signed up. This clear signal of demand validated the idea and impressed investors. Dropbox became a huge success.
❌ Most products fail
Most startups fail not because they fail to build what they set out to, but because they waste time building the wrong it. - Alberto Savoia
Most new products fail because they’re built for non-existent markets. We fall in love with our ideas. We assume, If I love it, others will too, If I build it right, people will come or If it solves a real problem, it will succeed. However, the market doesn’t reward effort; it rewards relevance. It doesn’t matter how elegant our design is if nobody wants what we’re offering. I have been involved with and seen many well funded work projects fail.
That’s where pretotyping comes in. It’s not about building the product. It’s about testing the idea itself. Pretotyping answers one vital question: If this thing existed, would anyone care? It’s faster, cheaper and more honest than building on assumptions. Pretotyping is explored in Alberto Savoia’s book The Right It.
📊 How to pretotype
Don’t ask people if they would buy. See if they do. - Alberto Savoia
Pretotyping is about measuring real behaviour, not collecting opinions. Surveys and focus groups can lie. Clicks, signups and pre-orders don’t.
Pretotyping techniques include:
Fake Door Test: Create a landing page with a Buy Now or Sign Up button to gauge interest before the product exists. I’ve used this method for my in-progress mobile game, Scarper (Tetris meets Candy Crush). When users click to download, they’re prompted to register their interest.
Wizard of Oz: Offer a working service, but do the magic manually behind the scenes. If users love it, you’ve got something worth automating later. DoorDash tested their idea by launching a simple website listing local restaurants and manually fulfilling delivery orders themselves.
YouTube MVP: Like Dropbox, film a short video showing how your idea would work. Track views, shares and signups.
The Infiltrator: Place your idea into an existing ecosystem, e.g. Amazon, Etsy, Airbnb, and watch if people try to engage.
Each test is driven by a Market Engagement Hypothesis:
If we offer [idea] to [target market], at least [X%] will [take action] within [Y time].
The hypothesis I want to test is: If I make a chatbot prompt assistant for ChatGPT Chrome users then at least 0.001% will pay £10/month to use it.
If our test meets the threshold the we’ve got early evidence of demand. If it doesn’t, we haven’t failed, we’ve learned. And that’s the whole point.
🏗️ Test boldly, fail cheaply then build
Failure sucks. Premature failure sucks more. Avoidable premature failure is the worst. - Alberto Savoia
Ego is the reason so many of us skip pretotyping. Testing feels like doubting. Building feels productive. I know I am guilty of falling in love with my ideas. However, building blindly is like placing a bet with all our chips before seeing the cards. Testing is how we see the cards. We don’t need certainty, just evidence to back our hunch.
Pretotyping protects our time, energy and wallet. It lets you explore freely, discard quickly and double down when you find traction. So be bold. Be scrappy. And before we build, make sure someone wants it.
Other resources
Build The Right It talk by Alberto Savoia
Find the Real Problem in 5 Steps post by Phil Martin
Questions to Test Product Ideas post by Phil Martin
Paul Graham’s mantra is, Make something people want. Preotptyping helps ensure we do just that.
Have fun pretotyping.
Phil…
