Is landing page validation dead?
One of the things that has been on my mind is the process of validating an idea with a landing page.
The idea of not 'building' anything until you have validated the idea with a landing page, and collecting email addresses / leads through the process makes total sense.
However, especially within a relatively educated community like this who understand that process, do you ever look at landing pages and just think - this is just someone validating an idea. There isn't a real product here yet, so I'm not going to bother signing up or giving my email address?
Ten years ago perhaps .001% of people would have looked at a landing page and thought, "There's no product, it's just for validation." Today, maybe that's 5%. The other 95% of adults have no idea about startup methodology. Those of us on IH are just a biased sample.
I think it definitely has a place for those more ambitious projects where you're going to have to invest a lot, so you need to know there's a market for it. It can also work if you've got a good lead magnet - otherwise it'll be hard to collect email addresses and get people interested in getting early access.
But in most cases, I'd say a MVP is more useful unless you're really creating something you think people are going to want so badly they'll share their email address in exchange for potential access further down the line.
I think I agree with this. It does lead to the the chicken and egg situation of, validate before you build, or build something to validate.
No. :)
There are also other ways though, e.g. through interviews using the Mom Test method.
Rarely.
Depends on how much you want the product. :)
For example, I signed up for @jimzarkadas' thinkoutloud.io waiting list. It's a landing page where the product is still being built and I want to know when it launches.
Thanks! Thinkoutloud.io looks really cool. I think that is an example though of someone who has already started building something. Enough to record a demo video at least.
Thanks for the mention @nikwen :)
@russellvaughan It all comes to what you will present in a landing page and how it fits into your strategy. In our case we want to start with private beta and landing page waiting is the first logical step since I share the behind the scenes of building thinkoutloud.io and people started to be interested into what I am working on.
If the landing is just text and screenshots then it feels just like a promise and people are less likely to signup, unless if you have a solid marketing pitch behind it and make it look like super interesting.
However if the landing page shows a fake product demo, a demo video or something that makes it real and shows how it works then people are more likely to show interest, simply because they understand what they are "buying".
Feel free to check out this article I wrote in the past for some inspiration as well https://www.indiehackers.com/post/add-or-show-a-product-demo-a-great-ux-technique-for-your-landing-page-67e50a5e92
Hope I helped!
Yes, he and @kangabru have already started building. But remove the demo and replace it with a few design mockups and I'd still sign up. :)
A landing page could also be a way to show what you are trying to build.
Plus, Kickstarter and Indiegogo kind of depend on a landing page model.