Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, a potential client approached me with an exciting opportunity: build a two-sided marketplace platform. The budget was substantial, the technical challenge was interesting, and it would have been one of my biggest projects to date. I said no.
Here's the thing—they wanted to "test if their idea works" by building a fully functional platform on Bubble. But here's what I learned after years of watching startups burn through budgets: if you're truly testing market demand, your MVP should take one day to build, not three months.
The real problem isn't the technology. Bubble can absolutely build what you need. The problem is that most founders are building solutions to problems that don't exist, or exist but nobody's willing to pay for them. I've seen too many beautifully crafted Bubble apps sitting unused because the founders skipped the most important step: validation.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why most MVP testing strategies fail before you even launch
The 3-stage validation framework I use before any Bubble development
How to test your MVP concept in 48 hours with zero code
Real metrics that matter vs. vanity metrics that lie
When to build on Bubble vs. when to stay manual
This isn't about the technical how-to of Bubble testing—it's about making sure you're building something people actually want before you invest months of development time.
Industry Knowledge
The advice every startup founder has already heard
Walk into any startup accelerator or read any product blog, and you'll hear the same advice about MVP testing: "Build fast, launch early, iterate quickly." The conventional wisdom goes something like this:
Build your MVP in 2-4 weeks using no-code tools like Bubble
Launch to a small group of beta users and gather feedback
Measure engagement metrics like daily active users and session length
Iterate based on user behavior and feedback
Scale what works and pivot what doesn't
This advice exists because it sounds logical and feels productive. Building something tangible feels like progress. Plus, tools like Bubble make it technically possible to build complex applications quickly, so why wouldn't you?
The problem is that this approach treats symptoms, not the disease. Most MVPs fail not because they're poorly built or missing features, but because they solve problems that either don't exist or aren't painful enough for people to change their behavior.
I've watched countless founders spend 3-6 months building "lean" MVPs on Bubble, only to discover that their core assumption—that people want this solution—was completely wrong. By then, they've burned through cash, momentum, and often team morale.
The conventional approach also creates a dangerous feedback loop. When your MVP gets low engagement, the instinct is to add more features, improve the UI, or target a different audience. But you're optimizing for the wrong thing. You should be testing whether the problem is real and whether people care enough to pay for a solution.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
A few months ago, I had a consultation call with a founder who wanted to build a platform for freelance graphic designers to collaborate with clients. Great idea on paper—there are pain points in client-designer relationships, and the market is huge.
But when I dug deeper into their validation process, here's what I discovered: they had zero conversations with actual designers or clients. Their "research" consisted of reading blog posts about freelancer pain points and looking at competitor pricing pages.
They wanted to spend $15,000 and 3 months building a Bubble platform to "test the market." I told them they could test their core assumptions in a week for under $100.
Here's what we uncovered in that first week:
The Problem They Thought Existed: Designers struggle with client feedback and revision cycles.
The Reality: After interviewing 20 freelance designers, we discovered that most already had systems they liked. The real pain point wasn't collaboration tools—it was getting paid on time and managing scope creep.
This experience reinforced something I'd learned from my own mistakes: the best MVP tests happen before you write a single line of code. The goal isn't to build faster—it's to discover faster whether you're building the right thing.
Another client came to me with a marketplace idea for local service providers. Instead of building immediately, we created a simple landing page describing the service and drove traffic through targeted Facebook ads. We collected 200 email signups in two weeks, but when we sent follow-up surveys, only 12% said they'd actually use the service if it existed.
That 12% response rate saved them months of development time and showed us that either the messaging was wrong or the problem wasn't urgent enough. We pivoted to manual matchmaking with those 24 genuinely interested people before considering any platform development.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's the validation framework I developed after watching too many Bubble MVPs fail. It's designed to de-risk your idea before you invest serious time and money in development.
Stage 1: Problem Validation (Week 1)
Before touching Bubble or any building tool, you need to confirm that a meaningful problem exists. Here's exactly what I do:
Step 1: Document your assumptions
Write down your core hypotheses about the problem, the target customer, and why existing solutions aren't working. Be specific. Instead of "designers need better tools," write "freelance graphic designers working with small businesses lose 3-5 hours per week due to unclear feedback and revision requests."
Step 2: Find 20 people in your target market
This is where most people give up, but it's the most important step. Use LinkedIn, industry Facebook groups, Twitter, or even local meetups. Your goal is 15-minute conversations, not surveys.
Step 3: Ask about their current process, not your solution
Don't pitch your idea. Ask: "Walk me through how you currently handle [the problem]." "What's the most frustrating part?" "What have you tried to solve this?"
Stage 2: Solution Validation (Week 2)
Only after confirming the problem do you test your proposed solution.
Step 1: Create a simple landing page
Use Carrd, Webflow, or even a Google Doc. Describe your solution in one paragraph and include an email signup form. This isn't about perfection—it's about gauging interest.
Step 2: Drive targeted traffic
Spend $50-100 on Facebook or Google ads targeting your exact audience. Share in relevant communities. The goal is 100-200 visitors to see if people care enough to leave their email.
Step 3: Manual delivery test
Here's the secret: deliver your service manually to the first 5-10 people who sign up. Use email, spreadsheets, phone calls—whatever it takes. This teaches you what people actually value vs. what they say they want.
Stage 3: Build Decision (Week 3)
Now you decide whether to build on Bubble, stay manual, or pivot entirely.
The Build Threshold:
Only build if you can answer yes to all three:
At least 20% of your landing page visitors signed up
At least 50% of manual test users actively engaged with your service
At least 3 people offered to pay or asked about pricing
If you hit these thresholds, then Bubble becomes the right tool. You're not testing whether people want your solution—you already know they do. You're building to scale something that works manually.
Validation Framework
Test demand before building anything. Three stages: problem validation, solution validation, then build decision based on real engagement metrics.
Manual First
Deliver your service manually to the first users. This reveals what people actually value vs. what they say they want.
Build Threshold
Only build when 20% sign up, 50% engage, and someone asks to pay. These metrics indicate real demand, not polite interest.
Assumption Testing
Document specific hypotheses about problems and customers. Vague assumptions lead to vague validation and wasted development time.
Using this framework, here's what actually happened with those consulting clients:
The Designer Collaboration Platform: After discovering the real pain point was payment and scope management, they pivoted to a simple invoicing and contract tool. They validated this with manual processes first, then built a lightweight Bubble app focused specifically on payment tracking. It generated $5,000 in pre-orders before launch.
The Local Services Marketplace: That 12% engagement rate led to a completely different approach. Instead of a broad marketplace, they focused exclusively on emergency home repairs—a much more urgent problem. They manually connected homeowners with vetted contractors for six months before building any platform.
My Own Learning: This framework saved me from building a SaaS tool for content agencies that I was convinced would work. During problem validation, I discovered that agencies already had workflows they loved—they just needed better project management, not content creation tools.
The most important metric isn't what people say—it's what they do. When someone asks "how much will this cost?" or "when can I start using this?" you've found real demand. That's your signal to start building.
The timeline matters too. These validation stages took 2-3 weeks total, compared to the 3-6 months originally planned for MVP development. That's 10x faster feedback with 100x less investment.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Test the problem first, not the solution - Most MVPs fail because they solve non-urgent problems
Manual delivery reveals the truth - What people value manually is what you should automate
Engagement beats perfection - Better to have 10 engaged users than 100 passive ones
Build thresholds prevent waste - Clear metrics for when to build vs. when to pivot
Conversations over surveys - 15-minute calls reveal insights that surveys miss
Speed of learning trumps speed of building - Validate assumptions in weeks, not months
Bubble is for scaling, not testing - Use it after you know what works
The biggest mistake I see founders make is treating MVP development as market research. By the time you've built even a simple Bubble app, you've already made dozens of assumptions about user behavior, feature priorities, and market needs.
Instead, use Bubble as a scaling tool for validated demand. When you know people want something and you understand exactly how they want to use it, Bubble becomes incredibly powerful for rapid development.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups:
Focus on one specific use case rather than building a platform
Test willingness to pay before building free tiers
Validate with manual workflows using existing tools
Target urgent business problems, not nice-to-have features
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce businesses:
Test product demand with pre-orders or waiting lists
Use manual fulfillment to understand operational needs
Validate pricing through direct customer conversations
Focus on repeat purchase behavior over first-time buyers