13 November 2026
A bad idea that dies in week two is a win
Why we built Spike Labz around killing ideas early, and what a validation sprint gives you instead of a deck.
Most companies test ideas the expensive way: months of planning, agency briefs and build cycles. By the time they find out whether it works, they have spent a fortune on the wrong thing.
We built Spike Labz because the market for honest, fast, hands-on validation did not exist.
What a sprint is
A validation sprint is four to six weeks, at a fixed cost, with one team.
- Discovery, week 1. We define the hypothesis and the success criteria together. We do not start building until we know what “validated” means for this idea.
- Build, weeks 2 to 5. A working product, not a wireframe. Something real that can be put in front of users, investors or internal stakeholders.
- Validate, final week. A clear recommendation: pursue it with confidence, or kill it before the real money gets spent.
Why killing is the point
A bad idea that dies in week two is a win. A bad idea that survives six months of development is a disaster. Either outcome of a sprint is a good one, because both are backed by evidence.