Jakob EheStudio
Free playbook for product leaders

The Product Validation Playbook

How to test big product ideas before you build them.

A practical 28-page framework for identifying the assumptions that matter, choosing the right validation method, and reducing product risk before you commit engineering time and budget.

  • Find the assumption most likely to kill the idea
  • Choose the cheapest credible test
  • Know when to prototype, pilot, rethink or stop

Get the free playbook

A practical 28-page framework for reducing product risk before engineering commits.

Free PDF · 28 pages

3D mockup of The Product Validation Playbook cover.

Written by Jakob Ehe

Product strategy and design experience from work with CERN, PwC, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

For founders and product teams making decisions that become expensive once engineering starts.

Inside the playbook

A practical framework for making product decisions before you build.

  1. Find the risky assumption

    Separate what your team believes from what it actually knows.

  2. Choose the right test

    Match the validation method to the decision you need to make.

  3. Build only what you need to learn

    Use the minimum level of prototype fidelity needed to answer the question.

Sample pages

A look inside

  • Page 7 of the playbook, “Find the assumption that can kill the idea”: an assumption-mapping grid and a worked example of an AI support-reply feature.
    Page 7The riskiest assumption
  • Page 8 of the playbook, “The Validation Ladder”: seven rungs from Conversation to Production, each with what it tests and how long it takes.
    Page 8The validation ladder
  • Page 14 of the playbook, “When the prototype must behave like the product”: a clickable mockup beside a functional prototype with varied, sometimes wrong, sometimes slow AI drafts.
    Page 14Functional prototypes

28 pages. Practical frameworks, examples and decision tools. No filler.

Make the expensive decision before the expensive build.

Get the Product Validation Playbook and use the framework on your next product decision.

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