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Validation Strategy

How to validate product-market fit before committing to full-scale development โ€” pilot programs, user interviews, and early feedback loops.

Validation Philosophy

Don't build in isolation. Validate demand, test assumptions, and gather feedback at every stage โ€” before, during, and after development. Fail fast, iterate quickly.

1

Phase 1: Pre-Development Validation (Month 1)

Customer Interviews (Target: 30 interviews)

Who: GPs, LPs, family office managers, real estate fund managers

Questions:

  • How do you currently find deal opportunities?
  • What's most frustrating about the current process?
  • How much time do you spend per week on deal sourcing?
  • What stops you from sharing deals publicly?
  • Would you pay โ‚ฌ99/month for a solution? Why or why not?

Success metric: 70%+ say they have this problem and would consider a solution

Landing Page Test

Build a simple landing page explaining the value proposition. Drive traffic via:

  • LinkedIn posts in private markets groups
  • Direct outreach to 200 targeted professionals
  • Google Ads (โ‚ฌ1,000 budget)

Success metric: 5%+ conversion to waitlist (100+ signups from 2,000 visitors)

Deep Competitor Analysis

Sign up for Palico, StepStone, and other platforms. Document:

  • User onboarding flow
  • Verification process (if any)
  • Search and discovery UX
  • What works, what doesn't
  • Pricing and positioning

Success metric: Identify 3+ clear differentiators where Deployed is meaningfully better

2

Phase 2: During Development (Month 2-4)

Design Mockup Testing (Month 2)

Show clickable Figma prototypes to 15-20 potential users. Test:

  • Registration and verification flow
  • Listing creation process
  • Search and filtering UI
  • Access request workflow

Success metric: 80%+ can complete core tasks without confusion

MVP Testing with Early Users (Month 4)

Invite 20 trusted users (mix of potential buyers and sellers). Ask them to:

  • Create accounts and complete verification
  • List 2-3 deals (can be fake/test deals)
  • Browse and request access to each other's listings
  • Report bugs and friction points

Success metric: All core flows work without critical bugs. 8/10 would recommend to colleagues.

3

Phase 3: Post-Launch (Month 5-6)

Private Beta with 50 Users

Invite 50 carefully selected users (25 buyers, 25 sellers) from waitlist. Criteria:

  • Active deal professionals with real listings
  • Mix of GPs, LPs, family offices
  • Geographic diversity (UK, DE, FR, IT, ES)

Track: Weekly active users, listings created, access requests, time to first connection

Success metric: 25%+ weekly active rate, 10+ successful connections made, NPS > 40

Continuous Feedback Loop
  • Monthly NPS surveys: "How likely are you to recommend Deployed?" (0-10)
  • Weekly user interviews: 3-5 power users to understand what's working/not working
  • Feature voting: Let users vote on roadmap priorities
  • Usage analytics: Track drop-off points, feature adoption, time to value

Kill Criteria (When to Stop)

If any of these happen, seriously reconsider the project:

Pre-launch: Fewer than 50 waitlist signups after Month 1

Beta phase: Less than 15% weekly active users after 2 months

Post-launch: Less than 5% free-to-paid conversion after 6 months

User feedback: Consistent negative feedback on core value prop (verification or confidentiality)

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