Let’s save you 18 months, half a million dollars, and the slow horror of realizing no one wants your product.
If you’re building in digital health, validation isn’t optional. Before you write a line of code or pitch a VC, you need to know:
“Does anyone actually want this?”
And more importantly: “Will they trust it enough to use it in healthcare?”
This guide breaks down the practical, founder-tested steps to validating your idea the smart way—before you waste time, money, or credibility.
Step 1: Know What Kind of Product You’re Building
Before you validate anything, take a step back and get painfully specific about what you’re actually building—and for whom. It’s not enough to say you’re building a ‘health app.’ That could mean anything from a mindfulness tracker to a Class II medical device.
You need to define the exact category your product falls into:
- Clinical Tool? Does it assist in diagnosis, treatment, or medical decision-making?
- Patient-Facing App? Is it designed to change behavior or support chronic care outside the clinic?
- Infrastructure Layer? Are you building tools for other healthtech builders (like APIs or data integration layers)?
- Operational Tool? Does it aim to make healthcare workflows more efficient—like scheduling, triage, or communication?
- Wellness or Lifestyle App? Are you addressing adjacent areas like sleep, fitness, or stress, where regulation may be lighter but evidence is still important?
Each of these buckets comes with very different expectations from users, investors, and regulators. And if you misidentify what you’re building, you’ll waste months talking to the wrong audience.
Getting this right up front determines your validation path, regulatory exposure, and ultimately, your fundraising narrative.
- Clinical Tool? (e.g. diagnostic support, treatment pathway)
- Patient-Facing App? (e.g. mental health, chronic care, fertility)
- Infrastructure Layer? (e.g. APIs, data pipes, integrations)
- Operational/Workflow Product? (e.g. scheduling, triage, intake)
- Wellness or Lifestyle App? (e.g. sleep tracker, nutrition)
Each one comes with different expectations, regulations, and user needs. Know where you sit.
Want help figuring this out? Read Digital Health vs. Wellness: Where Investors Draw the Line
Step 2: Define the Problem (Not Just the Idea)
No one cares about your app.
They care about solving their problem.
The fastest way to validate your idea is to define a problem so clearly that your target user says:
“Yes. That. I would pay for a solution to that.”
Use this framework:
- Who is the user? (Be specific. “Doctors” is not enough. Try “Primary care physicians at mid-size clinics in the US.”)
- What are they doing now? (Current behavior)
- Why is it broken? (Pain, friction, inefficiency)
- What happens if it stays broken? (Consequence = urgency)
Capture that in one sentence.
Example:
“Primary care physicians are spending 20% of their day on manual charting because their current EHR doesn’t support real-time voice transcription, leading to burnout and missed notes.”
Step 3: Talk to 20–30 Stakeholders (Not Your Friends)
This is non-negotiable. Founders often fall into the trap of building in a vacuum—just them, a Figma file, and a dream. But in digital health, assumptions can get expensive fast. You’re dealing with complex stakeholders, regulation, and often life-and-death implications. You need to reality-check your idea in the wild.
Before you build, pitch, or raise—go talk to real humans:
- Potential users (patients, clinicians, care coordinators)
- Decision-makers (hospital IT, medical directors, procurement teams)
- Buyers (employers, insurers, provider networks)
Why? Because every stakeholder has veto power in healthcare. A nurse who refuses to use it, a hospital CIO who blocks it due to integration concerns, or a payer who won’t reimburse for it—any one of them can kill adoption.
Use open-ended interviews. Don’t pitch. Don’t defend. Just listen. Ask:
- “What’s the most annoying part of your job right now?”
- “How do you currently deal with [problem X]?”
- “What tools do you use? What’s broken about them?”
- “If I gave you something that solved this, what would that mean for you?”
Look for:
- Repeated pain points
- Workarounds they’ve created themselves (a huge signal)
- Hints they’d budget or advocate for a solution
This is where you move from guessing to grounding. This is where good ideas go to sharpen—or die quickly and quietly, before they burn your runway.
Document everything. Patterns will emerge. And investors eat that kind of insight for breakfast.
- Potential users (patients, clinicians, admins)
- Decision-makers (hospital ops, IT, payers)
- Potential buyers (employers, insurers, providers)
Use open-ended interviews. Don’t pitch them. Ask questions like:
- What’s your biggest pain point in [domain]?
- How are you solving it today?
- What tools do you use? What do you hate about them?
- If I gave you [X hypothetical product], how would you use it?
Look for signal:
- Repeated language or frustrations
- Hints they’d pay or switch
- High emotion = high pain = high opportunity
Take notes. Record if they allow. Distill key insights into patterns.
Step 4: Map the User Journey and Barriers
Create a 5-step sketch of how a user would:
- Discover your product
- Start using it
- Integrate it into their workflow or care routine
- Get value
- Stick around or tell others
At each step, ask:
- What makes this hard in healthcare?
- What permissions/data/integrations do I need?
- Will users trust it?
This surfaces all the operational and regulatory friction early—before you’re buried in technical debt.
Step 5: Build a Throwaway Prototype
Not a product. Not an MVP. A throwaway prototype:
- Can be a Figma mockup, clickable InVision, Notion doc
- Enough to walk through a use case visually
- Doesn’t need backend or real data
Use it in follow-up interviews:
- “Can I show you a quick concept?”
- “How would this fit into your day?”
- “What would stop you from using it?”
If people say: “I’d use this” — ask: “Would you pay? Would you recommend it to your team?”
Step 6: Run a Small Validation Sprint
Set a 2-week sprint with a goal:
- 10 people to test prototype
- 3 provider meetings booked
- 5 user interviews completed
Document what you learned. What changed in your assumptions? What got stronger? What fell apart?
If it’s still alive after this, you’re on to something.
If not—good. You saved time and money.
Step 7: Summarize in an Investor-Ready One-Pager
Investors love founders who do this work.
Summarize:
- The problem (with quotes/data)
- The target user and current workaround
- The solution sketch (with prototype visuals)
- Validation highlights (interview numbers, key insights)
- Next steps: MVP roadmap, partners, data needs
Want a leg up? See What Digital Health VCs Look For in Startups
Final Thoughts: Validate Fast, Build Smarter
Validation isn’t just about derisking your startup—it’s how you build with clarity, speed, and investor confidence.
Every hour you spend validating up front saves 10x down the road in wasted product, wrong hires, or failed fundraises.
You don’t need a polished app. You need proof that someone needs it—and will act when you give it to them.
That’s how real startups get built.
For more, check out:
- Clinical Validation Guide for Startups
- Top Digital Health Accelerators
- Digital Health Pitch Deck Tips
He has invested in startups including American Well, Neuronation, Mimi, and most notably mySugr – which was recently acquired by Roche. Min-Sung is also a contributing writer for mediums including TechCrunch and Tech.EU and studied Business Economics at Witten/Herdecke, Harvard, St.Gallen, and in Seoul.