Most validation work is designed to confirm what the team already believes. Useful validation sets out, in advance, what would have to be true — and what result would end the idea.
That discipline shortens the path to a real business, because it removes the ideas that were never going to reach one.
It also builds credibility with investors and partners, who are far more persuaded by tested assumptions than by ambition.
A perspective from 818 — a topic we work on rather than a published paper.