What’s your mental framework for deciding the first step in a new project?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how chaotic the first phase of any project is especially for early-stage founders.
You get the idea, you get excited… and then you freeze.
Do you validate?
Do you sketch out a landing page?
Do you research competitors?
Or just build something to get feedback?
Personally, I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make that early direction clearer — I’ve journaled, built mini systems, even started working on a validation tool with a few people to help test ideas faster.
But I’m curious how you approach that fuzzy beginning.
What’s your go-to first step when you start a new idea and why? Would love to learn from how others tackle this stage.
Replies
Great question, Faseeh.
My first step is always centered around clarity: who exactly am I solving for, and is this pain real enough for them to care? So I start by writing a problem memo just one doc where I break down the user persona, their day-to-day context, and how they're currently solving the problem (even if it's messy or inefficient). I don’t jump to sketching or building until that memo makes sense to someone else who’s not in my head.
Once that's clear, I’ll write a fake feature announcement not to publish, but to pressure-test if it sounds genuinely useful. That one small shift anchoring the first step in problem articulation has saved me from premature design detours many times. Curious to hear more about the validation tool you're working on too!
@priyanka_gosai1 I love how intentional your process is especially the idea of a “problem memo” and fake feature announcement. That’s such a smart way to test clarity before jumping into product mode.
And yes! The tool I’m working on is called BrandClover. It helps early-stage founders validate their business idea before building by combining market research, competitor insights, and early positioning into one clean flow.
The goal is to help founders avoid the exact spiral you mentioned: designing or building too soon without grounding the idea.
We just launched it on Product Hunt (early waitlist stage). Would love your thoughts if you get a chance to check it out and if it resonates, an upvote would mean a lot too 🙌
👉 brandclover.online
Thanks again for sharing your process it’s super sharp.
Foundity
For me I try to build fast, talk to as many customers as possible, and iterate depending on what they love, want, and would change.
@isabelle_dijkhorst Your approach is good. I think founders often do this mistake of iterating and changing things in their product again and again while delaying the launch and it's one of the crucial thing that we as a founders need to see but talkin to customer early is a fast and reliable approach.
I usually just start by talking to people. Conversations always surface unexpected insights way faster than docs or landing pages. We shared a template on our newsletter to help Validate Your Idea.
@chaosandcoffee 100% agree with you and talking to people is a very crucial step but it takes time that is why I am working on a solution that can validate your idea in minutes with proper proofs and resources.
You can also upvote the BrandClover which I have launched it here :)
Great question, Faseeh! For me, the first step is usually to clearly define the core problem I’m trying to solve. Without a solid understanding of the problem, it’s easy to get lost in features or assumptions. Once the problem is well-defined, I move quickly to validate it by talking to potential users or customers—this helps avoid building something nobody needs. Depending on the feedback, I might sketch out a simple landing page or prototype to gather more concrete reactions. I find that balancing early validation with just enough tangible output (like a landing page or mockup) creates momentum and reduces the overwhelming fuzziness at the start. Curious to hear how others refine their process too!
Here’s my not-so-secret sauce: I always force myself to “make it awkwardly real” as Step One. That means I pick the smallest, most tangible version of the idea and try to put it in front of a human being. Sometimes it’s a hilariously ugly Figma mockup, sometimes a single-question survey, sometimes just a well-crafted tweet that describes the concept and asks “Would you use this?”