Go-to-Market Validation: Evidence Before Execution
Why go-to-market strategies fail without validated demand, and how to test your acquisition and monetisation assumptions before committing budget.
The go-to-market evidence gap
Most go-to-market strategies are built on assumptions rather than evidence. Teams assume a channel will work because it works for similar products. They assume a price point will convert because competitors charge similar amounts. They assume demand exists because the market is large.
These assumptions are reasonable but untested. The cost of executing a go-to-market strategy based on untested assumptions is significant: wasted budget, misallocated team effort, and lost time that competitors use to establish position. Validation before execution eliminates this waste.
Validating acquisition channels
The ProductBooks framework distinguishes between repeatable and non-repeatable acquisition. Repeatable acquisition means new users arrive through channels that continue to produce results without one-off effort. Non-repeatable acquisition includes launch events, press coverage, and founder-driven outreach that cannot sustain growth.
Before committing go-to-market budget, test whether your acquisition channels are genuinely repeatable. The Demand Reality Operator in the ProductBooks Product-Market Fit assessment is designed specifically for this purpose.
Testing monetisation assumptions
Willingness to pay is one of the most commonly assumed and least commonly tested aspects of go-to-market planning. Teams set prices based on competitor analysis, cost-plus calculations, or intuition. They rarely test whether users will actually accept a fixed paid offer without negotiation or discount.
The Payment Conversion Operator tests this directly by observing whether users accept or reject a concrete offer. This evidence is far more valuable than survey data about what users say they would pay.
Organic versus paid demand
A critical distinction in go-to-market validation is whether demand exists organically or only when stimulated by paid acquisition. Products with genuine product-market fit generate organic demand through word of mouth, unsolicited referrals, and users actively seeking the product.
If your product only acquires users through paid channels, it may indicate that the underlying demand is not strong enough to sustain growth when acquisition costs rise. The Organic Pull Operator tests for this by observing whether users create demand through unsolicited referrals.
A validation-first approach to GTM
Instead of building a complete go-to-market strategy and then executing it, validate each assumption independently first. Test acquisition channels with small experiments. Test pricing with real offers. Test retention without reminders or incentives.
The ProductBooks Product-Market Fit and Business Model Fit evaluators provide the structure for this validation. They ensure every go-to-market assumption is tested against real evidence before significant budget is committed.