pretotyping.org · Starting Up

📖 Book

✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it A free, short predecessor to The Right It for when you want the method without buying a book. It lays out cheap experiments (fake buttons, manual concierge, pre-orders) that reveal whether people will act, not just nod. Worth reading before you spend a single rupee on building.

Pretotype It (free PDF)

From pretotyping.org by Alberto Savoia ~90 pages

Test the core experience with the smallest possible time and money.
Watch what people do when asked to commit, not what they say.
A single well-run experiment can kill or confirm an idea in a day.

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Answers How do I talk to customers without them just telling me what I want to hear? How do I turn a vague hunch that something is broken into a sharp, testable idea? How do I test whether people will actually pay, not just say they like it? Is a waitlist with a lot of signups actual proof of demand? How do I validate demand in India when people love a free product but won't pay for it? How do I honestly test my founder-market fit before I quit my job? What are the questions that quietly ruin an interview by leading the person to the answer I want?

🛠️ Tool

✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it When you cannot easily reach users, cheap tests can substitute for some of the hard questions, and pretotyping gives you the techniques to fake a product and measure real demand for pennies. Savoia, a former Google director, shows how to test whether people will actually use a thing before you build any of it. The free book and technique summaries are all on the site.

Pretotype It: Make Sure You Are Building the Right It

From Pretotyping.org by Alberto Savoia

Test demand with a fake or mocked version first
Measure real behaviour, not what people say they will do
Kill or confirm an idea in days instead of months

Open pretotyping.org →

Answers How do I find a problem worth solving in an industry I have never worked in? How do I validate an idea when I'm building outside the big startup hubs and don't have easy access to target users? Is a waitlist with a lot of signups actual proof of demand?

📖 Book

✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it Savoia's pretotyping approach forces you to define, before you show anyone anything, exactly what a real reaction would look like versus a polite one. His XYZ hypothesis format ("at least X% of Y will Z") gives you a measurable line in the sand so you're not relying on your own read of a fuzzy conversation. It's the clearest antidote to a founder convincing themselves a shrug was enthusiasm.

Pretotype It

From pretotyping.org by Alberto Savoia ~80 pages

Decide what counts as a real signal before you run the test, not after.
Watch for what people do (the Z), not what they say they'd do.
A cheap pretotype that answers the real question beats a polished one that doesn't.

Open pretotyping.org →

Answers How do I show a prototype to users without biasing their reaction?