Latest / The Career Change Podcast with Fexingo: Switching Fields, Bootcamps, and Reskilling / How Bootcamp Grads Can Validate Their Idea Before Building
Transcript
- Lucas: So you just finished a coding bootcamp, you've got this great idea for an app, you spend three months building it in your spare time, and then you launch it to crickets. That is one of the most demoralizing things that can happen to a career changer. And it's also incredibly common. Luna: Yeah, I've seen it happen to friends. They pour all this energy into a project they think is brilliant, and then nobody signs up. It's crushing. Lucas: Exactly. And that feeling isn't just painful — it can actually set back your job search. Because the whole point of building a side project as a bootcamp grad is to show employers you can ship something real. But if you ship something nobody wants, that's not a strong signal. Luna: So what's the alternative? Because I think most bootcamps teach you to build, build, build. They don't really spend time on, 'Hey, should you build this at all?' Lucas: Right. The alternative is what the lean startup world calls validation. And it's surprisingly simple. You don't need to write a line of code to find out if people want what you're thinking of building. Let me give you a concrete example from literally this month. Luna: I'm listening. Lucas: So I talked to a bootcamp grad — let's call her Priya. She finished a full-stack program back in March, and she was trying to break into product management. She had this idea for a scheduling tool aimed at freelance graphic designers. A way to manage client bookings, send reminders, track payments. Luna: Sounds useful. But also sounds like there are already a few tools like that. Lucas: Exactly what I thought. But instead of building it, she decided to run a validation test first. She spent a weekend putting together a simple landing page using Carrd — took her about two hours. The page said something like, 'Designer Scheduler — the all-in-one booking tool for freelance creatives.' There was a mock screenshot she made in Canva, a short benefits list, and a 'Get Early Access' button. Luna: So a classic smoke test. No actual product. Lucas: None. She then ran a small Google Ads campaign targeting freelance graphic designers. Her budget was $100 total over five days. She used keywords like 'freelance scheduling tool' and 'client booking for designers.' The landing page had a simple analytics tracker so she could see how many people clicked the button. Luna: What happened? Lucas: She got 1,240 visitors to the page. Of those, 52 clicked the 'Get Early Access' button — that's a 4.2 percent click-through rate. Not terrible. But here's the key: she then followed up with those 52 people via a short email survey, asking a few questions about their biggest pain point with scheduling. 19 of them replied. And in those replies, she discovered something interesting. Luna: What? Lucas: Almost none of them said scheduling was their top problem. The most common answer was something else entirely — invoicing and getting paid on time. They hated tracking invoices manually. So her idea, which she was about to spend three months building, was addressing the wrong pain point. Luna: Wow. So that $100 and a weekend saved her months of work. Lucas: Exactly. And she pivoted. She redesigned her landing page to focus on invoicing, ran another small test, and got a much stronger response — over 8 percent click-through. That became her actual side project. She built a very simple MVP — just invoicing and payment tracking — and when she put it on her portfolio, she could tell interviewers, 'I validated this with real users before building. Here's the data.' Luna: That is such a better story than 'I built something and nobody used it.' It shows product thinking, user research, and data-driven decision making. That's practically a job interview in itself. Lucas: Right. And the barrier to doing this is incredibly low. You can run a smoke test with a landing page builder — Carrd, Unbounce, even a simple Google Site. You can run a small ad campaign for fifty to a hundred dollars. Or you can post in relevant online communities and drive traffic organically. Luna: What about the fake door test? I've heard that term a lot. Lucas: Great point. A fake door test is when you put a button or call to action on a page that implies a feature exists, but when someone clicks it, they get a message like 'Coming soon' or a signup form. It's a way to measure interest without building anything. For example, if you're considering adding a 'team collaboration' feature to your scheduling app, you could add a button that says 'Invite your team' and see how many people click it. If hardly anyone does, maybe that feature isn't worth building. Luna: That feels almost sneaky, but it's really just smart. You're not deceiving anyone — you're testing demand. Lucas: Exactly. The key is to be honest if someone asks. You can say, 'We're exploring this feature and your feedback helps us prioritize.' People actually appreciate being consulted. Luna: So for a bootcamp grad trying to build a portfolio piece, what's the step-by-step? Say I have an idea. What do I do first? Lucas: First, articulate your core hypothesis in one sentence. 'Freelance designers need a better way to manage client bookings.' Then, identify your target user — be specific. Not 'designers,' but 'freelance graphic designers with 3-10 clients who use Instagram for leads.' Then, create a simple landing page with a value prop and a call to action — 'Get early access' or 'Learn more.' Drive a small amount of traffic — $50 to $100 in ads, or post in a few Facebook groups or subreddits. Luna: And measure the conversion rate. What's a good number? Lucas: Anything above 5 percent is a strong signal of interest. But honestly, the real learning comes from talking to the people who click. Priya got 19 replies from 52 clickers. That's a 36 percent response rate, which is fantastic. She then did 15-minute phone calls with a few of them. That's where the real insight came from. Luna: So the validation isn't just about the numbers — it's about the conversations. Lucas: Exactly. And those conversations are gold for your job search. When you're in an interview and they ask, 'Tell me about a time you made a data-driven decision,' you have a perfect story. You can say, 'I hypothesized that freelancers needed scheduling, but after running a smoke test and talking to 20 users, I learned that invoicing was the real pain point. So I pivoted.' That's a stronger answer than 'I built a scheduling app.' Luna: And it shows you're not just a coder — you're a product thinker. Lucas: Which is exactly what hiring managers want, especially for product-adjacent roles. So the takeaway is: don't build first. Validate first. Your future self — and your portfolio — will thank you. Luna: Speaking of thanks, I think it's worth mentioning that this show stays ad-free because listeners like you support it. If you've gotten value from episodes like this, consider tossing a couple of dollars our way at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It genuinely makes a difference and keeps us going. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small gesture, but it really helps cover the hosting and editing costs. And we appreciate it more than we can say. Luna: Alright, back to validation. So what's one thing our listeners can do this week to start validating an idea? Lucas: Pick one idea, write down your hypothesis, and create a landing page in one evening. Then post the link in one relevant online community — a subreddit, a Facebook group, a Slack channel — and see if anyone clicks. That's it. You'll have more clarity in 48 hours than you would after weeks of coding. Luna: I love that. It takes the pressure off building something perfect and puts the focus on learning. Lucas: Exactly. And learning is what gets you hired. Thanks for listening, everyone.