Pre-Launch Demand Evidence
Before launch, turn an idea into scenario-based questions and collect the real materials users rely on to see who would genuinely switch to a new product.
Before launching, an independent developer rewrites an idea as a small set of questions about real situations and invites prospective users to submit the spreadsheets, screenshots, or manual workflows they use today. Instead of treating a stated willingness to use the product as validation, it records who will share real material and who will keep testing, then groups that evidence into a scenario-based demand wall.
Within a week, the developer can see which problems already have users they can serve, rather than relying on an interest curve alone.
Why now
At the July 19 observation, "If You Build It, They Will Come" ranked fifth on Hacker News with 265 points and 97 comments, concentrating discussion in that window around whether personal organizing and investment lead to participation. S1 For independent developers preparing to launch, this shifts the question from "Will anyone come if I build it?" to a more testable moment: whether prospective users will first share the real materials they are using now.
Target user
Independent developers planning to spend one week to one month building, but who currently have only likes, a waitlist, or scattered interviews. They use it before choosing a scenario, cutting features, or deciding whether to keep investing.
Minimal entry point
Start with a shareable scenario questionnaire. Each question accepts a screenshot, file, or link to an existing tool; respondents explain the specific task the material represents and separately confirm whether they will join the next testing round. The backend only needs to group submissions by scenario, mark follow-up willingness, and generate an anonymized, shareable evidence wall.
Punching above its weight
Run a public "show how you do this today" call around one vertical scenario, turn representative anonymized submissions into evidence-wall updates, then return to the original community to invite similar users to contribute. Each call brings in participants while creating real, shareable content.
Competitors & gaps
- TallyGoogle
- Tally already collects images, documents, and other files through forms, but it is built for general information gathering. The opening here is a workflow that organizes material type, the scenario it represents, willingness to join follow-up testing, and the strength of the evidence for demand decisions. S2
- MazeGoogle
- Maze covers moderated and unmoderated research, participant recruitment, reporting, and sharing. The narrower entry point is validation before a prototype exists, using users' current work materials and their commitment to continue testing as signals. S3
- DovetailGoogle
- Dovetail provides a research repository that keeps interviews, tests, and feedback traceable to source material. The opportunity is to serve independent developers without a formal research process, starting with a public call for the first submission rather than organizing research that has already been completed. S4
How it makes money
Project-based subscription: the free plan includes one validation project and a limited number of submissions; paid plans add more active projects, private evidence walls, collaborators, and data export.
The case against
Users may decline to upload material because of privacy, confidentiality obligations, or lack of trust in the organizer, not because the problem does not exist. Conversely, friends and core community members may be willing to help without intending to switch or pay. Unless the product can distinguish trust barriers and polite assistance from genuine replacement intent, the evidence wall merely presents selection bias more neatly.