[formreply]

The real problem isn't validation — it's that the question 'would you use this?' is almost meaningless. People are polite. They don't want to crush your enthusiasm. 'I'd use this' clicks cost nothing so they mean nothing.

The backwards approach that actually works: start with a complaint, not an idea. Find communities where people are actively frustrated about something specific. Not 'project validation is hard' — that's generic. More like 'I spent 6 weeks building X and got 3 users and I want to die.' That's a real pain signal.

Then, before building anything, do 10 conversations where you never mention your solution. Just ask about the problem. 'Walk me through the last time you tried to validate an idea.' You'll hear things you never would have thought to put in a feature list. Most of the time you'll also realize the actual problem is slightly different from what you assumed.

The validation page is still a later step, not an earlier one. You need to already know the problem is real and common before you can design a page that speaks to it credibly.