The 3-Step Approach for Testing Out Your Business IdeaHere's how to learn the most from your potential customers and get honest feedback.

Let's say you wake up one day and decide the world needs a better mop, and you're just the person to make it. Before setting out, youinterviewprospective customers. "Are you looking for a better mop?" you ask someone. The person searches hismemoryfor all the times he's wrestled with a mop or hated the smell of it, and he ignores the fact that most days he doesn't care about his mop and can't even remember the last time he used it. The hits, not the misses, fill his mind. "Yes," he tells you. "I am looking for a better mop." You're thrilled to hear that and go off to design it. Eight months later, with $20,000 of R&D money invested, you come back and ask him to buy it. "Nah," he says. "I've already got a mop."

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