12-Week Sprint to Product-Market Fit

Goal: Prove people will pay for your solution before you build too much.

What is Validation?

❌ Not Validation

• "My friends said they'd use this"
• "There are 10M developers, if we get 1%..."
• "Competitors exist, so there's a market"
• "I built it and launched on Product Hunt"

✅ Real Validation

• 10+ people signed LOIs or pre-orders
• 5+ paying customers (even if it's a pilot)
• 90%+ retention after 30 days
• Customers referring others organically

The test: Money talks. Opinions don't.

12-Week Validation Timeline

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                   12-WEEK VALIDATION                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                           │
│  Week 1-4           Week 5-8           Week 9-12         │
│  ──────────         ──────────         ─────────         │
│                                                           │
│  50+ convos     →   12 PAYING      →   PROVE             │
│  Patterns           pilots             REPEATABILITY     │
│  emerge             $$ committed       5 more customers  │
│                                                           │
│  ↓                  ↓                  ↓                  │
│  VALIDATE           MEASURE            SCALE              │
│                                                           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Week 1-4: VALIDATE