Research is Hiding in Plain Sight

When designing a product for an early-stage startup, the money-making research is hiding in plain sight.

Whether you do research before launching into design depends on what you already know about what you’re building, but...

The thing with early-stage startups is that the founder is often the user. They know the pain and tedium precisely because they couldn’t find the solution that worked. It’s someone who’s lived the problem enough to get fed up and just create the fix.

Your most valuable piece of research and the best sounding board you could hope for is right in front of you. Build something and watch a real person use it.

You’ve just saved yourself six weeks sitting in the discovery stage.

Best practices will tell you that the right decisions are behind a hefty research phase, when in reality, putting pen to paper and actually producing something could be the best research process at your disposal.