What is the difference between validated learning and wastage? A case based approach to answer

A couple of years ago, an idea spring out of nowhere in my mind. It was a business idea which resolves around scientific papers' editing. Although, it was not novel but it still manage to allure me towards doing it. There was a unique selling point. At least in my perception. I was ambitious as any other startup owner and put in it my months of planning effort and invested heavily in website development.

I knew absolutely what i was doing, had a strong initiation & execution strategy, and a viable product. I was motivated, passionate and stubborn.

Exactly, i am no different from other entrepreneurs. I was doing everything i felt right at that moment and was HOPEFUL it would work.

I had everything: a vision, a mission, a strategy, tactics to work around problems and most importantly an online product that was supposed to work but

it was all in my ASSUMPTIONS and data that i gathered from competitors.

We solicited almost a thousand consumers identified during reconnaissance as prospected early adopters and trust me not one consumer responded back. NOT ONE.

We tried different regions, different academic groups even non-native english speakers. And absolutely nothing happened.

I was certain on its viability as everything was SCHEDULED and PLANNED. It didn't worked out. What was i missing?

I was devastated. I remember how much i had been through. It does not make sense:

"I find the answers aren't so clear

Wish I could find a way to disappear

All these thoughts they make no sense

I find bliss in ignorance

Nothing seems to go away

Over and over again"

One Step Closer: Linkin Park

Everything i did, every effort i put in, it all goes in vain. A complete disaster and waste.

Now i realize how terribly i attempted this startup. Although, as per books, we were good. We were SUPPOSED to do well because we did everything right. RIGHT?

Wrong !!!! Let me explain.

Instead of even realizing that there is a problem, we assumed there is one and there are people who are looking out for its solution. We assumed we can re-innovate the existing solutions and people will buy it. We didn't even realize how uncertain the market is.

We Built-Hope-Wasted !!!

We built the complete product with fully functional features that we thought were required by users and we hoped it to worked out. This is where we went astray.

The whole startup and its central product went south as opposed to the expectations. Assumptions based businesses are short-lived and are prone to immediate failure due to mentioned reasons. 

A much leaner and nicer way to attempt that startup would have been the other way around. Instead of preparing whole product, we should have shipped a minimum viable product that just work fine. A product which has a propensity to stop working any time. 

And then we should have updated it accordingly after taking real-time reviews from users. The features which are backed by customer opinions are most likely to work because these features are the reasons a user is there.

This approach of built-measure-learn would have given us actual insights into how people think and what they need. And we would have saved ourselves from that wastage. 

This approach is called validated learning which resolves around the notion of continuous learning from your customers, market trends, business environment and competitors and adopting those learning into real product updates. 

Reference:

1) One Step Closer, Linkin Park.

2) Why Build, Measure, Learn – isn’t just throwing things against the wall to see if they work – the Minimal Viable Product.

3) The Lean Startup Methodology - Principals