Validate by Asking About the Problem, Never Linking the Product
Validate by Asking About the Problem, Never Linking the Product is a reddit & forums tactic for getting your first users: Pull signal and traffic from Reddit without ever naming your product: ask how people currently solve the problem, and post helpful content that only indirectly points back to you.
It's a strong fit for teams of almost any kind, and works especially well for Pre-launch validation and soft traffic. As a reddit & forums play, plan for medium effort and expect results to arrive at a steady pace, all grounded in 1 linked primary source.
- Channel: Reddit & forums
- Best for: Pre-launch validation and soft traffic
- Effort: Medium
- Speed: Medium
- Sources: 1 linked primary source(s)
Why does reddit & forums work for this?
Removing the product link removes the spam trigger, so you learn whether the problem is real and whether people will click, with zero ban risk.
The exact steps (4)
The full step-by-step this founder ran, what they posted, where, and in what order, plus the watch-outs, is part of the library.
Sources
- Source — IndieHackers · indiehackers.com