Lean Startup in practice: How to validate your business model efficiently

The Lean Startup-method sounds simple on paper: Build - Measure - Learn. In practice, things often look different. Many start-ups spend months on development without really knowing whether their business model will work.

Yet that is precisely the core of Lean Startup: reducing uncertainty before you invest time and money in a finished product. In this article, we will show you how you can Step-by-step and data-based validate - and avoid typical mistakes.

In short: you check, whether your assumptions about the problem, target group, solution and willingness to pay really apply. It's not about finalising a product - it's about understanding it, whether anyone is interested in it at all and whether it a functioning business model behind it.

Behind every start-up unspoken hypotheses. You should visualise these early on - for example with the help of a lean canvas or business model canvas.

Examples of critical assumptions:

• • The target group has the problem really.
  • Your solution solves this problem better than existing alternatives.
  • The target group is willing to pay for it.
  • You can invite new customers to a Acquire a realistic price.

Focus on the riskiest assumptions first.

One of the biggest mistakes: founders talk to potential customers too late or in the wrong way.

Market research is not validation. You need real conversationsthat reveal behaviour instead of opinions.

Tips for good interviews:

• • Don't ask: "Would you use that?"but: "How do you solve this problem today?"
  • Be interested in concrete situations, not hypothetical wishes.
  • Listen more than you talk.
  • Take notes - or record (with permission).

Now it's time to get down to business: you need a Experimentthat provides you with measurable feedback.

Common formats:

• • Landing page tests with call-to-action (newsletter, demo, early access)
  • Prototypes or click dummies (e.g. with Figma)
  • Wizard-of-Oz testsYou simulate a functioning product manually
  • Concierge testsYou offer the solution as a service and observe how customers react

Important: Determine in advance what would be a success - for example 20 % Conversion rate with 200 visitors:inside.

Real validation means: Someone is willing to give time or money for your solution.
Feedback is good - transactions are better.

This is how you can test:

• • Price on landing page with payment button (e.g. Stripe test mode)
  • Pre-orders (crowdfunding, pre-sales)
  • Manual invoicing for first test customers

If nobody is willing to pay - you probably don't have a validated business model.

Ask yourself after every experiment:

• • What have we learnt?
  • Which hypothesis was (not) confirmed?
  • What do we test next?

This cycle is the core of Lean Startup. You won't get everything perfect in one go - but you will learn what really works with every step.

Lean Startup is not a savings programme - it is a Risk management approach. You don't build something because you can, but because it's a Targeted learning brings.

If you learn early on what works (and what doesn't), you save yourself months of development - and arrive much more quickly at a business model that really works.

Do you want to validate your business model - but need a sparring partner? Then come to the free open pitch and present your idea to us!