How to Validate Your Course Idea

The biggest mistake course creators make is building before validating. They spend months creating content, only to discover no one wants to buy it.

Validation saves you from this fate. It's the process of testing whether real people want what you're planning to create—before you invest significant time and money.

The good news: validation doesn't require a finished product. You can validate with nothing more than an idea and a willingness to talk to people.

What validation tells you:

• Is there genuine demand for this topic?
• Will people pay for a solution?
• What specific problems do they need solved?
• How should you position and price your course?

The fastest path to validation is talking to potential students. Not surveys—actual conversations.

Who to Talk To

Identify 10-15 people who match your ideal student profile:

• Current clients or customers
• Email subscribers who've engaged
• Members of relevant communities
• Friends of friends in your target audience

What to Ask

About their problem:

• What's your biggest challenge with [topic]?
• How long have you been struggling with this?
• What have you already tried?
• What would solving this be worth to you?

About their learning preferences:

• How do you prefer to learn new skills?
• What courses have you taken before? What worked/didn't work?
• What would make you confident a course would help?

Red Flags to Watch For

• "That sounds interesting" (polite but not committed)
• Vague answers about the problem
• No prior attempts to solve it
• Unable to articulate what success looks like

Green Lights

• Specific, emotional descriptions of the problem
• Money already spent on solutions
• Asking when your course will be available
• Offering to pay now for early access

Before building content, test whether your solution resonates. Create an outline and share it with potential students.

Your MVP Outline Should Include

1. The transformation promise — What will students achieve?
2. Module titles — The journey from start to finish
3. Key outcomes per module — What they'll learn/do
4. Your unique approach — Why your method works

How to Test It

Share your outline and ask:

• Does this address your main challenge?
• Is anything missing that you'd need?
• Would this transformation be valuable to you?
• What questions do you have about the approach?

Iterate based on feedback. Your first outline won't be perfect. Use conversations to refine it before building.

Pro tip: Our Course Outline Generator can help you create a professional structure to test with your audience.

The ultimate validation: people paying you money. Pre-selling means offering your course for sale before it's complete.

How Pre-Selling Works

1. Create a compelling sales page with your outline
2. Set a "founding member" price (30-50% off future price)
3. Offer a specific start date
4. Collect payment or deposits
5. Only build if you hit your minimum enrollment

What to Promise

Be clear about what buyers are getting:

• Access to content as it's created
• Opportunity to shape the course with feedback
• Founding member pricing locked in
• Refund if you don't deliver

Setting a Minimum

Decide in advance: what's the minimum number of students that makes this worth building?

• 5-10 students: Validates interest, proves people will pay
• 15-20 students: Strong signal, enough to build momentum
• 20+ students: Excellent validation, confident launch

If you don't hit your minimum, refund everyone and go back to research. This isn't failure—it's valuable data that saved you months of wasted effort.

Competition is validation. If others are successfully selling courses on your topic, there's proven demand.

What to Research

Find 5-10 competitors and analyze:

• What do they charge?
• What's included in their course?
• What do reviews say (positive and negative)?
• What's missing from their approach?
• Who are they targeting?

Where to Look

• Udemy, Skillshare (mass market)
• Teachable, Thinkific discover pages
• Google: "[topic] online course"
• Industry associations and conferences
• Podcast guests in your niche

Finding Your Angle

You don't need to be completely unique. Look for gaps:

• A specific audience they're not serving
• A teaching method they don't use
• A result they don't promise
• A level of support they don't provide

No competition can mean no market. If no one is teaching your topic, ask why. It might be an opportunity—or a warning sign.

A landing page test measures interest with minimal effort. You're not building a course—you're testing whether people want one.

The Simple Landing Page

Your page needs:

• A compelling headline stating the transformation
• Brief description of what the course covers
• Who it's for
• Email capture or waitlist signup
• Optional: "Notify me when it launches" button

Driving Traffic

Send traffic from:

• Your email list (segment interested subscribers)
• Social media posts about the topic
• Relevant communities (with permission)
• Paid ads (small budget test)

Measuring Success

Conversion benchmarks:

• 5-10% email signup: Moderate interest
• 10-20% signup: Strong interest
• 20%+ signup: Exceptional interest

Follow-up survey:

After they sign up, ask one question: "What's your biggest challenge with [topic]?"

The responses tell you exactly what to cover in your course.

When to Move Forward

You're ready to build when you have:

• At least 100 people on your waitlist
• Clear understanding of their main problem
• Confidence in your unique solution
• Evidence people will pay (pre-sales or direct statements)