What’s the scrappiest experiment you’ve run to validate an idea?
by•
Early-stage building is full of hacks and sometimes the fastest, scrappiest experiments teach you more than months of “proper” work.
I’ve heard of people testing demand with:
A “fake door” sign-up button that went nowhere (but proved interest)
A quick landing page with nothing behind it
Cold DMs to potential users with a mockup
Even just a Google Form dressed up as a product
So, I'm curious: what’s the lowest-effort, highest-learning experiment you have ever run to test if your idea was worth pursuing?
Would love to hear the creative (and maybe slightly chaotic) stories that helped you decide whether to double down or pivot.
216 views
Replies
The lowest-effort test for us was simply simulating the experience without any actual product built. It felt messy at the time, but it gave us clarity on what really mattered to users which was faster than any roadmap would tell us
@atique_bandukwala1 Nicee! I agree that sometimes simulating the experience teaches you more than months of building. Congrats on the approach!
I'm curious, tho, did you keep running with that manual/simulated version for a while, or was it just a short bridge until you started building the real thing?
@andreitudor14 Exactly! We actually did it manually just once for our target audiences which turned out enough to make their jaws drop. After that, we jumped straight into building the real thing.
And fun timing - We’re going live on Product Hunt today, so it feels like the journey has come full circle :)
@atique_bandukwala1 Smooth approach! Curious to see the product once you go live - good luck with the launch 🔥
Funny enough, my biggest insights came from cold DMs paired with a barebones landing page: watching who bothered to click told me more than any survey.
Sometime, it feels like the messier the experiment, the clearer the signal. It gives you a lot of freedom, not having to worry about the complexity of the experiment setup.
@dheerajdotexe That’s such a good point, I feel that messy setups often strip things down to the raw signal.
Did you find that the people who clicked through from your DMs actually stuck around as early users, or was it more of a litmus test for interest?
@andreitudor14 Yeah, more of a litmus test if I'm being honest. most didn’t stick, but the few that did were gold because in my case, the ones that did stick, they engaged hard. It helped me spot who was genuinely curious vs just polite-clicking.
@dheerajdotexe That’s a great distinction; even a handful of “engaged hard” users can be more valuable than a bigger pool of polite clickers. Those early deep users often shape the product in ways no survey ever could. Did you double down on learning from those few, or did you keep experimenting broadly in parallel?
Well, we were accepted as an alpha startup at WebSummit, but with less than a month, we decided to attend with a different product which was more of an idea and that later became GemsAround.
There was no time to build a real product, so we improvised with a clickable prototype made only from pictures and design—no actual code. People loved it. It validated the problem, showed the need for such a tool, and even got our first enthusiasts onboard. We also managed to talk with our potential users and get their thoughts.
We were upfront about it, and funnily enough, people seemed to appreciate the honesty even more. That early feedback shaped the beta we later built.
@viktorgems Niceee one! Love how you leaned on a pure design prototype and got real validation. Did any of those early enthusiasts stick around once you launched the beta, or was it mostly a fresh wave of users?
@andreitudor14 Actually yes, of course not everyone but we had people who helped us populate our map with some new locations. For us this is crucial since we are a community powered platform and have to rely on travelers. Prior to attending Viva Tech with our team, we needed to have the service operating in that area, for this we needed to have locations around Paris so that we can give the tool to international attendees to make the best out of their free time and travel around.
Some are still using the platform while others signed up for the waiting list for the official launch.
@viktorgems That’s awesome! Sounds like you managed to turn early curiosity into real community contributions, which is no small feat 👏 Relying on travelers to populate the platform must add another layer of unpredictability. Curious, how do you balance between seeding content yourself vs letting the community drive it? Feels like one of those “chicken and egg” dynamics every community product has to crack.
@andreitudor14 Couldn’t describe it better than the “chicken-egg” example, for real!!!!
Honestly, it’s one of the hardest challenges we face. Most travelers don’t want to be the first to upload content in a destination—what we’ve noticed is that people are way more likely to share once they see a map already filled with places. If it’s empty, very few will start posting consistently. This is usually the case with most community-powered platforms .
To get things rolling, we’ve taken a few approaches. Our whole team are travelers at heart, and we already had plenty of content to seed the platform with.
In Moldova, where we’re based, it’s been easier since we know the places and can upload ourselves.
On top of that, we collaborate with tourism boards, DMOs, and travel organizations, plus sometimes we just reach out directly to travelers and encourage them to share.
Right now, some people post simply because they like the extra exposure—we always credit the original source/author and link back to their socials (IG, TikTok). We also tried to make it as easy as possible: if you already have a post on Instagram, you can just drop the URL and it uploads straight to GemsAround.
We’ve also rolled out user profiles, so you can see what each person has contributed. Next up is gamification—leaderboards, rewards, that sort of thing—to make it more fun and competitive. And when we introduce our premium model, those who upload will earn credits for every contribution, which they can then use to unlock premium for free.
Not saying we’ve cracked the code yet(still a loooong way), but this is what makes the most sense for us so far.