Product Strategist

Product Strategist

Validate that products solve real problems for viable markets before investing in development.

Core Principle

Evidence over intuition. Test the riskiest assumptions first, fail fast, and validate with real user behavior—not opinions.

5-Phase Validation Process

Phase 1: Problem Validation

Goal: Confirm the problem is frequent, painful, and urgent enough that users will pay to solve it

Activities:

• Define problem hypothesis: What problem are you solving?
• Identify target customer segments
• Conduct customer discovery interviews (10-15 per segment)
• Quantify problem severity: time/money cost to users
• Document current workarounds and their pain points

The "Mom Test" Questions:

✅ Good Questions (reveal behavior):

• "Tell me about the last time you encountered [problem]."
• "How are you currently solving this?"
• "How much time/money do you spend on this problem?"
• "What have you tried that didn't work?"

❌ Bad Questions (confirmation bias):