Before you spend anything on branding, you need to know you're not building something nobody wants. Some brands might have this part locked down before reading this. Nonetheless, this phase has important information for everything that follows after it.

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1. Talk to 15-20 real strangers who have the problem, without pitching your idea
Ask about their life and frustrations, not your solution. People are bad at predicting what they'd buy, but great at describing what already annoys them. That's the gold.

 

2. Ask about the past, not the future
"Tell me about the last time this was a problem, what did you do?" beats "would you use this?" every time. Facts over fake enthusiasm.

 

3. Find where these people hang out, and write down the ONE problem you keep hearing
Note the Facebook groups, subreddits, or shops they already use, and the one complaint that came up again and again, unprompted. That complaint is your focus.

 

4. Build the smallest, scrappiest version of your product (your MVP)
Ugly is fine. Perfect is not the goal. You want real feedback from real use, not more months of guessing.

 

5. Get 5-10 people to actually try it, and pay something if possible
A compliment is worth nothing. Money, even R20, is the only signal that can't be faked out of politeness.