The 10 Best Ideation & Validation Tools For Startups

100 Whats of Creativity

100 Whats of Creativity is a curation of 100 what if questions to unblock your mind and to spark your creativity. The questions in this presentation are strategically designed to make you think more deeply about your ideas or about the idea you're about to crack.

Mindmeister

With over 7 million users, Mindmeister is the best mindmapping tool that lets you capture, develop and share ideas visually. The online web-app has a sleek design and an easier to use interface which lets you perform lots of creative tasks like brainstorming, note taking, and project planning, etc. Moreover, it lets you see a full history of changes, export to various file format and to various services like Dropbox, Google drive, etc. and embed maps on your website or blogs.

The application also lets you present your ideas on TV using the iPhone and iPad applications.

Reddit r/startups & r/startup_ideas

With over 200k users in r/startups and 12k users in r/startup_ideas, Reddit could be your go to place to ask for suggestions and motivation for your business idea. The startup community even has a discord chatroom for better interaction.

The Lean Validation Playbook

With the rise of lean methodology where entrepreneurs are moving swiftly to figure out what they're going to build and how they're going to build it with as few resources as possible, the lean validation playbook is a short guide which will help you to make sure your product idea is a viable one.

The process has 4 distinct stages with several techniques which validate the problem, market, product, and willingness to pay. 

The idea is considered validated only when you've passed all the 4 stages of the lean validation playbook.

Germ.io

Germ.io is a perfect tool that helps you convert your abstract ideas into a properly formed concept and actionable project plan.

The tool has features which lets you note down your every eureka moment (in word, links, and images) and build your entire flow of thought around the project organically. There are also features to help you in effective brainstorming.

IdeasWatch

IdeasWatch is a place where ideas are crowdsourced. It is a platform where customers and entrepreneurs work hand in hand to come up with the next big idea.

People pitch in their ideas of what sort of product they would like to see in the market and various entrepreneurial minds have an open discussion on its viability. There are over 2000 startup ideas and thousands of entrepreneurial brains which could help you generate your business idea.

Javelin

Javelin is an all in one web-application which lets you to define your consumer hypothesis, identify customer needs by conducting problem interviews, develop landing pages for A/B testing, and validate your idea by finding its product/market fit.

It is a freemium application where you pay for the personalized services you opt for.

Curator

Curator is a perfect visual tool to organise, collect, and present your ideas. It helps you to organise your thoughts visually, refine your visual story telling, collect inspiration, create mood boards, create presentations, and collaborate.

The application is only available for iPhone & iPad.

Point

Point is a tool you can use to share links and also comment on the content from within the page you are sharing. This is a great tool for effective brainstorming.

Point is available as a chrome plugin and as an iPhone application.

Coggle

Coggle is the simplest tool for creating and sharing  mindmaps which lets you collaborate in real time. It is a freemium web-app which helps you create good looking mindmaps fast and also take notes while brainstorming.